Passion, the Force that Keeps Us Going

We're closing in to almost two years of bear market in the crypto sphere and I asked myself... what is it that keeps us around after all this time of unfavorable market conditions? To crypto in general, and to Steem in particular.

We are not as many as we were when crypto hyped at the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018. We have seen people we know that were once active in this space and now are not, maybe even talk trash about it.

On Steem, I have only experienced the bear market. Not only that, but I joined at the peak, with the hype, and my first small purchase was when STEEM was over $4. Now it's less than 15 cents.

What changed? Prices in fiat.

What else changed? Reward per unit of time, seen as immediate gratification related to fiat.

What else changed? Some people's mood, on the way down, with the price.

What didn't change? Stubborn development in the crypto sphere, despite the long way down of the prices. Enough to draw the attention of big corporations and countries to the phenomenon. And not only that, but enough to want to have their own piece of the action and benefits in the likely future to come, which they seem to consider highly probable as well, or they wouldn't bother.

What else didn't change? The passion of the people at the core of each project which kept going, as well as of the community surrounding them.

The kind of passion that makes a developer see a product years into the future as if it is today, or at most tomorrow. Even when the fruits of the labor don't come... yet.

The kind of passion that drives a community to help each other, form a shield against aggressors and let others know how awesome everything is. Of course there is bias. And that comes from passion.

The kind of passion that fuels the people, when economics don't at first sight.

Passion is what we have that is the most valuable in this space. Passionate people will go to great lengths to feed their passions.

And when there are enough passionate people about the same thing, all over the world, and no central switch someone can turn off, there is no stopping and no turning back.

If you can't stop something, you'd better not stand in the way. Even better if you are on the side of the change. China seems to be the first great power to understand that.