There has been a lot of speculating about what the long-term prospects are for crypto when the current Covid crisis is resolved and the dust begins settling from all of this economic upheaval. Although alt-coins were hit especially hard, trading is stabilizing and some are even starting to recover some ground. I think many are asking why crypto is being called into question, when it was born out of distrust of the banking system in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. 

The reality is that while there are plenty of fintech projects based on the blockchain that have lots of potential, there has been relatively limited adoption of BTC or major altcoins as a means of payment. Coins are mostly assets that traders and investors buy to make money, and as a result the crypto markets will obviously be news-sensitive as big investors pull their money out and into safety. However, I believe that there is a huge potential for crypto to fill a void as more and more countries turn their backs on globalization after the post-crisis finger-pointing begins.

I believe the real conflict here is not whether the blockchain is here to stay, but whether crypto can continue to provide privacy, especially in a post-Covid world. Many governments are starting to see the wisdom in digital central bank currencies, and gold-backed digital assets may prove to revolutionize the crypto-space. But will the whole idea behind Bitcoin in the first place, that two people could undertake a transaction without the government being involved in any way, be completely lost in the process?