Bitcoin's end game
I had the good fortune to (literally) travel around the world last month with multiple stops in the USA, Europe and Asia talking with customers and friends about crowdsourced software testing and Bitcoin.
While I’m happy to talk about software testing, most people were more interested in Bitcoin. Everywhere I went, people wanted to know where I think Bitcoin is headed. Today, I’ll do better than tell you, I’ll show you.
This week is Hong Kong’s Bitcoin coming out party.
The biggest names in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technology have descended upon our fair city for an action packed week of events and talks.
When you’re walking through Central on your way to the Bitcoin Assocation of Hong Kong’s launch party this evening, I want you to take a look at Hong Kong’s beautiful skyline.
What do you see? The International Financial Center. The Bank of China Tower. The Citibank Building. The HSBC Building. World class skyscrapers that are the envy of other cities.
But look again…look harder. What you’re really looking at is Bitcoin’s end game.
Of the world’s top 10 most valuable company public companies Only two are in skyscrapers. One is Exxon in a 44 story building in Houston and the other is Berkshire Hathaway in the Kiewit Tower in Omaha, a “skyscraper” so small that it wouldn’t even have an elevator in many cities in Asia. Companies in competitive industries don’t build skyscrapers.
Hong Kong’s skyline was built by banks and their demand for expensive office space. As you lean back and stretch your neck to look towards the sky, what you’re seeing aren’t office buildings but the ridiculously high profit margins that are only “earned” with protected industries.
The best thing about Bitcoin is the excitement that it has generated and the cryptocurrency ecosystem that has grown from that mixture of passion and technology. The movement and technology is evolving so quickly it doesn’t matter if Bitcoin itself lives or dies.
Even if Bitcoin disappeared tomorrow, some of the thousands upon thousands of projects already spawned from Bitcoin technology or inspired by Bitcoin will live on. These projects will give people a choice in areas such as payment, wealth storage, trust and law where today their “choice” is determined by the country into which they happened to be born.
Bitcoin’s end game is creative destruction: to bring the skyscrapers tumbling down by introducing competition where none existed and bringing down costs for consumers and businesses.
Bitcoin, tear down those walls!
Hope to see you at tonight’s party!
Building cool new cryptocurrency tech and need help testing it? Email us at startups@pay4bugs.com and ask how we can help!