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I think it's very important to understand how early we still are in the crypto space. We're entering a period of democratization of value.
Bitcoin is like the internet in 1996. At that time, the internet was slow, raw, expensive and clunky. You needed expensive equipment, it was very expensive to access and difficult to use. Downloading anything from the internet took forever. And still people thought it was exciting. Just like the internet, Bitcoin is a protocol.
The internet we have today is abundant, it's cheap and 'it just works'. It's put the whole world at our fingertips. You have access to more information today than many world leaders did 30 years ago, all thanks to the internet!
Video tapes turn into DVD's which turn into digital movies (information). Cassette tapes turn into CD's which turn into digital music (information). Things turn into information and information becomes free. A web developer in the Philippines can work for a business owner in the U.S. They use Zoom to meet, Paypal to transfer money, Gmail to send each other emails. All these tools are free for anyone to use.
Bitcoin and crypto in general right now is slow, expensive, raw and hard to use for many. In 10 or 20 years we'll be looking back at this time the same way we look back on the internet in 1996. How crazy it was to pay $10 for a transaction on the Bitcoin network ('wow, people used to do transactions on the base layer?!').
People say about Bitcoin: 'It's so clunky and not user friendly, my mom will never be able to use it'. They forget that you could have said the same thing about internet in the 90's. Yet today, even my grandma knows how to use Facebook, Instagram or make contactless payments in the supermarket. We're judging a lot of these projects for what they are now instead of what they could be.
Just look at old talk show clips from the 90's on YouTube. People sitting around a table discussing how they cannot imagine how the internet is useful. 'Why would you send an email, when you can just send a post card?' or 'Why would I need a mobile phone when people can just call me at home?'. It's only later that the majority of people will realise why it's useful. The late majority will just use it and don't even think about how it works or why it's useful because it's become so normal.
The internet is built on the rails of TCP/IP. If you asked 100 people how the internet works and what TCP/IP is, how many people do you think can explain that? I bet it's less than 1/100. And the great thing is you don't NEED to know how it works to know the internet is valuable and to be able to use it in your daily life today. Yet people expect to know how Ethereum or Bitcoin work from a 30 minute YouTube video.
How many people do you think were able to predict Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, 4G/5G, Artificial Intelligence in the 90's? Hell, even the iPhone and all things it's replaced. You don't need to buy a professional camera, car navigation system, computer, radio, CD's, DVD's or phone book anymore. You just buy an iPhone. There's an app for everything and most of them are free.
You needed to have a lot of imagination to see what the internet could become in the 90's. That's why you see all these new crypto projects popping up. People are experimenting, seeing what they can build. Seeing what value they can provide. Most of these projects will fail, but that's not the point. The point is that we're discovering what this new technology CAN DO. Yet people are asking why people pay $500K for a CryptoPunk NFT. Even if only a few projects stand the test of time, the impact on our lives will be hard to grasp right now. We do know one thing: the genie is out of the bottle and it won't go back in.
That's why I appreciate @AceVentures taking the time to educate people and being on the front lines of this.
Bitcoin is like the internet in 1996. At that time, the internet was slow, raw, expensive and clunky. You needed expensive equipment, it was very expensive to access and difficult to use. Downloading anything from the internet took forever. And still people thought it was exciting. Just like the internet, Bitcoin is a protocol.
The internet we have today is abundant, it's cheap and 'it just works'. It's put the whole world at our fingertips. You have access to more information today than many world leaders did 30 years ago, all thanks to the internet!
Video tapes turn into DVD's which turn into digital movies (information). Cassette tapes turn into CD's which turn into digital music (information). Things turn into information and information becomes free. A web developer in the Philippines can work for a business owner in the U.S. They use Zoom to meet, Paypal to transfer money, Gmail to send each other emails. All these tools are free for anyone to use.
Bitcoin and crypto in general right now is slow, expensive, raw and hard to use for many. In 10 or 20 years we'll be looking back at this time the same way we look back on the internet in 1996. How crazy it was to pay $10 for a transaction on the Bitcoin network ('wow, people used to do transactions on the base layer?!').
People say about Bitcoin: 'It's so clunky and not user friendly, my mom will never be able to use it'. They forget that you could have said the same thing about internet in the 90's. Yet today, even my grandma knows how to use Facebook, Instagram or make contactless payments in the supermarket. We're judging a lot of these projects for what they are now instead of what they could be.
Just look at old talk show clips from the 90's on YouTube. People sitting around a table discussing how they cannot imagine how the internet is useful. 'Why would you send an email, when you can just send a post card?' or 'Why would I need a mobile phone when people can just call me at home?'. It's only later that the majority of people will realise why it's useful. The late majority will just use it and don't even think about how it works or why it's useful because it's become so normal.
The internet is built on the rails of TCP/IP. If you asked 100 people how the internet works and what TCP/IP is, how many people do you think can explain that? I bet it's less than 1/100. And the great thing is you don't NEED to know how it works to know the internet is valuable and to be able to use it in your daily life today. Yet people expect to know how Ethereum or Bitcoin work from a 30 minute YouTube video.
How many people do you think were able to predict Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, 4G/5G, Artificial Intelligence in the 90's? Hell, even the iPhone and all things it's replaced. You don't need to buy a professional camera, car navigation system, computer, radio, CD's, DVD's or phone book anymore. You just buy an iPhone. There's an app for everything and most of them are free.
You needed to have a lot of imagination to see what the internet could become in the 90's. That's why you see all these new crypto projects popping up. People are experimenting, seeing what they can build. Seeing what value they can provide. Most of these projects will fail, but that's not the point. The point is that we're discovering what this new technology CAN DO. Yet people are asking why people pay $500K for a CryptoPunk NFT. Even if only a few projects stand the test of time, the impact on our lives will be hard to grasp right now. We do know one thing: the genie is out of the bottle and it won't go back in.
That's why I appreciate @AceVentures taking the time to educate people and being on the front lines of this.
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