Crossing The Chasm – Yaniv Feldman
- December 2017 — Bitcoin (BTC) reaches $20K.
- April 2018 — Fidelity (one of the largest asset manager in the world) is launching its Digital Assets arm.
- August 2018 — Intercontinental Exchange (The largest financial exchange company in the world) announces it would be launching Bakkt crypto exchange.
- February 2019 — JPM (probably the most important financial institution in the US) is launching its own JPM Coin.
- June 2019 — Facebook unveils Libra coin and Libra Blockchain.
People have been talking about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies a lot in the last few years, but it appears that the events of the last couple of weeks have done more for Bitcoin and Crypto, than all of the previous events, combined.
The emergence of Libra, backed by an impressive list of global companies, has managed to bring a spotlight to crypto in a way that the industry itself hasn’t managed to do in the last ten years.
First, it was the FED chair Jerome Powel, who acknowledged Bitcoin (BTC) as an alternative to gold, and even though he did called it speculative, he did put them both on the same list as a “store of value.”
He was followed by US President Trump and US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who decided to address the risks that Bitcoin, Libra, and crypto, could bring the US (and perhaps global) economy. While the sentiment behind their remarks might sound detrimental to an unprying eye, it is an important recognition of one of Bitcoin’s most important traits as an alternative to the traditional financial system.
The week continued with the Libra hearings in the Senate and the house. While Facebook’s David Marcus stood heroically against the “legislators firing squad,” he wasn’t the big hero of hearings. Rep. Patrick McHenry, the Ranking Member of the house’s Financial Services Committee, has taken the floor with a 4 minutes speech about the unstoppable force, which is… Bitcoin. Here are just some of his statements:
“The reality is that whether Facebook is involved or not, change is here. Digital currencies exist. Blockchain technology is real. And Facebook’s entry into this new world is just confirmation, albeit at scale… The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, envisioned, and others are building, is an unstoppable force. We should not attempt to deter this innovation, and governments can not stop this innovation, and those that have already tried have failed.”
You can watch Congressmen Patrick McHenry’s full statement in the video below:
Congressman Patrick McHenry on Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto — 07/17/2019While most of the events in the list above have been covered mainly by traditional media with the small glimpse here and there to mainstream action (mostly the $20K Bitcoin), all the events of this week covered not just by financial media, but by ALL mainstream media, in the US and internationally, in prime time.
The actual chasm that every new technology has to go through is about adoption. Adoption takes time, and adoption of new technologies, especially those with a somewhat complicated user experience takes even longer. So what do we do? We get smart people to work on making it simple, more accessible, and help bring it to the masses. The problem is that most intelligent people will come when they know they have an audience. But the masses won’t come if the smart people won’t come first and develop the infrastructure that would make it simple enough for them to begin with (I’m over-simplistic here, bare with me). How do you solve this?
By doing great marketing to attract both sides. But who would invest in marketing for a decentralized industry, with no “owner” and no marketing budget? Apparently, the US government has some unspent resources left to spend before the debt ceiling deadline will arrive in early September.
While this might sound sarcastic, the latest survey by Blockchain Capital shows that US audience is becoming more aware and willing to accept the notion the cryptocurrencies are here to stay. The results highlight that “Bitcoin is a demographic mega-trend led by younger age groups. The only area where older demographics matched younger demographics was awareness: Regardless of age, the vast majority of the American population has heard of Bitcoin. Despite the bear market, the data shows that Bitcoin awareness, familiarity, perception, conviction, propensity to purchase and ownership all increased/improved significantly — dramatically in many cases”.
The early adopters recognized the value of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies years ago. Now, Financial institutions also recognize it. Big tech recognizes it. World governments recognize it. Now, It is only a matter of time.
Published at Sat, 20 Jul 2019 09:35:34 +0000
Bitcoin Pic Of The Moment
Chain of Bitcoin (BTC) keychains, symbolizing the Bitcoin (BTC) Blockchain.
By btckeychain on 2014-08-24 17:24:45
