Texas Bitcoin Conference Speech on Bitcoin avoiding the Echo Chamber

Texas Bitcoin Conference Speech on Bitcoin avoiding the Echo Chamber

    Posted in : Bitcoin:
  • On : Apr 02, 2015
My speech at Texas #Bitcoin Conference this week was titled:  “Avoiding the Echo Chamber: Misconceptions, Hurdles & Obstacles that Bitcoin Technology must Overcome to Realize it’s Global Potential” 

It included a few points:


1- Sure Bitcoin may replace banks but it will take a while, the Internet has still not yet replaced newspapers — contrary to some belief of fans of the tech, bank CEOs are not up at night worried about Bitcoin – if this tech works most will integrate it, a few newcomers will lead and a few established players will be disrupted and destroyed.

2- One can be overly assertive in marketing to new merchants, key is adoption – it’s not as productive to push every sandwich shop to accept digital money as it is to spend more of it yourself — efforts are better spent on development, high level engagement and using the tech rather than unfocused evangelism.  

3- Not everything can be decentralized or should be – when electricity became mainstream people thought it was an amazing new invention – so they started making electric hats, belts and shirts…. They were right about the tech but overzealous in its application ….just because decentralized tech is amazing doesn’t mean it can and should be used for everything….only those things that solve a real problem.

4- We need more mature and experienced teams and business plans — we now see more people like Ben Davenport and Jeremy Allaire entering the space and less jokers, this is great — we see more clear plans that solve problems and serve a need and less disjointed amateurish plans — we need even more of the great teams and plans.

5- Price does matter — it drives press, interest and further adoption – currently all Bitcoin on planet earth is worth a third of the messaging service WhatsApp – that’s ridiculous- VC investment in the space has been huge, almost as much as the currency itself is worth — for this to be real the price will have to reflect it – one could drive the other but we won’t likely see both success in Bitcoin without a massive price increase. 

Bitcoin technology has tremendous potential to change our world.  We need to be realistic about how it will do this.  Now go use your Bitcoin and go build something.