A really great written article!!
That guy got it and knows why Bitcoin will matter!
Quote
What has made gold so valuable over so many centuries is that it is good at being valuable, something which, it turns out, is extraordinarily difficult. Gold is hard to counterfeit; easy to refine, merge, subdivide, and transport; and exceedingly scarce. (All the gold ever mined would not fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools.) It is these attributes, and only these attributes, which make gold an effective medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value … or, more succinctly, money.
Please note that Bitcoin meets all of these criteria, too, in spades.
[...]
Have you ever tried to understand why such transfers take many hours or even several days, when ATMs function instantaneously? …And then, when you do use an international ATM, have you found yourself paying five-dollar fees, on top of even worse exchange rates?
It gets worse. Have you ever encountered people who cannot use their debit cards outside of their own nation? Have you ever been to a country where the overwhelming majority of the population is unbanked? Have you ever had to change money on the black market? Have you ever left a country and found yourself with a fistful of currency that was essentially worthless, unexchangeable, once you left its border behind? Have you ever had to deal with export controls, or hyperinflation?
I’ve seen all of these things–I’ve spent many months traveling in the developing world–and I’ve seen how billions of people have to deal with them. (Both China and India impose currency controls. The World Bank estimates that the planet’s 250 million international migrants remitted $583 billion in 2014.)
Do you know what essentially immunizes you from all of the above? Gold. And, increasingly, bitcoin.
[...]
What I am interested in are applications which seek to use Bitcoin to supplant our sclerotic, duct-taped global financial plumbing. Freemit, headed by TechCrunch’s own John Biggs. Align Commerce, funded by Kleiner Perkins. Blockstream, a company devoted to broadening the bounds of all things bitcoin, and the first iteration of their fascinating sidechains initiative. Don’t look to big banks’ blockchain initiatives for the future of payments. Look to startups like these.
Please note that Bitcoin meets all of these criteria, too, in spades.
[...]
Have you ever tried to understand why such transfers take many hours or even several days, when ATMs function instantaneously? …And then, when you do use an international ATM, have you found yourself paying five-dollar fees, on top of even worse exchange rates?
It gets worse. Have you ever encountered people who cannot use their debit cards outside of their own nation? Have you ever been to a country where the overwhelming majority of the population is unbanked? Have you ever had to change money on the black market? Have you ever left a country and found yourself with a fistful of currency that was essentially worthless, unexchangeable, once you left its border behind? Have you ever had to deal with export controls, or hyperinflation?
I’ve seen all of these things–I’ve spent many months traveling in the developing world–and I’ve seen how billions of people have to deal with them. (Both China and India impose currency controls. The World Bank estimates that the planet’s 250 million international migrants remitted $583 billion in 2014.)
Do you know what essentially immunizes you from all of the above? Gold. And, increasingly, bitcoin.
[...]
What I am interested in are applications which seek to use Bitcoin to supplant our sclerotic, duct-taped global financial plumbing. Freemit, headed by TechCrunch’s own John Biggs. Align Commerce, funded by Kleiner Perkins. Blockstream, a company devoted to broadening the bounds of all things bitcoin, and the first iteration of their fascinating sidechains initiative. Don’t look to big banks’ blockchain initiatives for the future of payments. Look to startups like these.