Cryptocurrency Believers vs. Bankers – The Protocol

Cryptocurrency believers vs bankers

For something worthless, great fortunes are being spent promoting cryptocurrencies to the world’s elite at the moment. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which ends tomorrow, has been dominated by two camps: central bankers, and the classic Davos types, complaining that cryptocurrency cannot be of value; And newcomers from Cryptoland, are venturing into the belly of the beast to make an argument about digital assets. Coders sure beat the traditional: You can’t stumble off a board to buy a doner kebab at Davos Platz without seeing a “Win Lambo” billboard with a rocket ship emoji.

It seems like a strange time to make the case for cryptocurrency. However, there is the clever cryptocurrency group, which mingles with the bankers at the Swiss Shangri-La Hotel.

• Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle and a regular at Davos, makes the rounds. Advertisements promoting the USDC stablecoin from Circle are everywhere as well, from Zurich airport to Davos railway station. Allaire spoke on a panel with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse about remittances — the part of the funding where the lower fees and faster transactions that crypto has promised can make a real difference to the underbanked.
• Polkadot, Filecoin, Securrency, etc. They also advertise heavily in Davos.
• Tether, which saw its stablecoin USDT briefly lose its peg last week give up pizza.
• Andreessen Horowitz announced a new $4.5 billion crypto fund today, more than double the size of the third crypto fund, which it raised just last June. This will fund Davos’ marketing budgets for start-ups for years to come.

If this is a crypto winter, why the thaw? Perhaps this is the summer of crypto in St. Martin.

• After dropping by more than halving from its peak in November, Bitcoin is hanging around $29,000.
• Some think it could go even lower: Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of the Guggenheim Expect a 70% decrease to $8000. But even Minerd believes that bitcoin, along with ether, will survive the cryptocurrency crash and prove its value in the long run, compared to tech stocks after the dot-com crash. At the time, he told CNBC, “We couldn’t tell you if Amazon or Pets.com was the winner.”
• Remember, the Nasdaq crashed in March 2000 and then bounced back that fall, only to start a long, resistance slide.

Obsessing over cryptocurrency prices is a wrong way to think about things, anyway. Oscar Wilde said, “Ordinary fortunes can be stolen, true riches cannot.” (I bet his parachin bridge wasn’t hacked!)

Crypto entrepreneurs cruising around in Davos have one thing that trumps central bankers, and it’s a dream. Why should cryptography be different from any other technology sector? The whole point is to feel good about changing the world and trying to get crazy piles of dollars. A cynical banker who ignores cryptocurrency might be someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

–Owen Thomas (E-mail | Twitter)

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people talking

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• “Google’s current practice of collecting and maintaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to suppress people seeking reproductive health care.”

Enel CEO Francesco Starace believes that burning gas to produce electricity “Stupid“”

• “You can produce electricity better and cheaper without using gas… Gas is a precious molecule and you have to leave it… for applications that require it.”

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube suppressing misinformation On the podium it will take more work:

• “There will always be incentives for people to create misinformation. The challenge will be to continue to stay ahead of the curve and make sure we understand what they are.”

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon wants to rebuild trust after the $Lapsus hack:

• “We should have done a better job.”

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Green remains optimistic, Tweet Tuesday: “We can prove the promise of a community of monkeys.”

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