The temptation is always there, but I would argue that it has rarely been as evident as it is now. In the rapidly evolving digital landscape new ideas come and go in a blink of an eye. And each trend seems to get an alarming amount of ‘experts’ with a business lifespan of a fruit fly. That was as relevant in an era of Facebook ads as it is in the new Bitcoin utopia.

Far be it from me to disparage any of you from pursuing your goals in an emerging profitable field, but I would advise approaching every such venture with respect and care it deserves. So, what are the basics of the successful business?

• Foundations

Do not disperse your attention. Formulate your goals and core values from the outset and let them pave the way from what’s to come. You are your most important asset, and trying to cover as many bases as humanly possible will not help your case, especially early on. Being first can be a tremendous advantage, but it only helps if you have tenacity, insight and acumen to build on that. Otherwise, you’ll be left on the forest floor, feeding the emergent growth while slowly wilting away.

• Information

Get educated in the topic and industry you want to pursue. Don’t simply rush into something promising without the clear understanding of what the risks are. No formal education will make you a business savant, but you should never underestimate the power of information. There are few things worse for an entrepreneur than following someone blindly, even if they promise you a city where the streets are paved in gold.

• Connections

Few of us are truly solitary creatures, and no serious entrepreneur can afford isolation. Your relationships are both your opportunity network and your safety net. The trends come and go, but the connections you’ve established with partners, affiliates and business associates last. When push comes to shove, you need someone that has your back, and that’s not something you can get while hopping from one opportunity to another.

• Marketing

No matter how good your business idea is, you need a marketing plan. That’s not optional. Luckily for you, getting the word out about your business has never been easier. Social, SEO, content and email marketing are all very accessible these days, and neglecting the opportunities they present you with is borderline criminal. Leads are essential for ensuring a steady revenue stream, and obscurity will bury your business faster than any crisis.

Every trend is an opportunity – there’s no denying that, but you need to know what you are and what you want. Some opportunities are better left to others. Always aim to move forward, and constant lateral moves won’t help you with that.

It’s certainly a contentious issue, especially in the modern world where elections can be swayed by the social media campaigns. Who, if anyone, should be able to control our social media presence?

Quite a few people would argue that governments and corporations should not have a say in what we do in our private lives. And a decentralized social media platform might be the way forward. Currently, the best way to achieve that seems to be the technology behind the cryptocurrencies – the blockchain. And this is not the stuff of a far-fetched future.

onG.social is gaining momentum and has a chance to revolutionize the way we interact with social media. It claims to be both simpler and fairer to the end user. Backed by IBM since 2014, the emergent platform promises stability and security along with rewards for the most prominent contributors. The content posted on onG.social can be automatically mirrored on other social platforms like Facebook, G+ and LinkedIn.

Needless to say, this holds a lot of potential for businesses, as with this platform they will be able to reach new markets that have previously been inaccessible due to the state censorship.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might be best used for storing value, at least at the moment. It is also difficult to escape the notion that the value of these assets has not yet peaked and will continue to go up in the foreseeable future. While this is not entirely unreasonable, the more conservative financial institutions tend to agree that the current situation appears to be a bubble. This does not bode well for a lot of the cryptocurrencies out there which are likely to go out of existence in this scenario. Nonetheless, most investors should be able to mitigate the losses by spending some of the initial profits.

Another major reason is sheer inconvenience of cryptocurrency transactions at the moment. Simply put, there is no universal solution that would govern these interactions, which significantly hinders widespread spending.

Finally, we need to address the exorbitant costs associated with cryptocurrency trading. If you’re looking for any sort of standard or uniformity here – you’re in the wrong place. Expect to pay for every transaction, and most exchanges introduce their own rates. This is hardly a problem for those who hold on to their currency and simply sell it in large quantities once in a while. Any frequent trading, though, is almost out of the question due to these policies.

Good news is that things are starting to change, and a number of promising startups are seeking to simplify the process and enable cryptocurrency spending on a larger scale. Hopefully, that will indeed make the cryptocurrencies the money of the future.

Financial education recourse focused on investment featured Bitcoin at the top of their annual Top Financial Terms list. It’s also important to note just how prevalent the cryptocurrency has been this year, as Bitcoin is far from the only cryptocurrency-related term on the list.

The technology behind the new trend – blockchain – is a close second. A predictable development, considering that even a lot of more conservative investors that shun cryptocurrencies as a speculative bubble are fully on board with the tech that powers it.

Another crypto-term on the list is ICO or Initial Coin Offering. Despite the fact that quite a few of the ICOs do not actually sell out, it is impossible to underestimate the impact of those that do. And this has not gone unnoticed in the investment circles.

This is the gold rush of our time, and Bitcoin comes both with the positives and the negatives of its infamous counterpart. No matter what you think about it, ignoring cryptocurrency is not a wise move.