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From the great debate on Bitcoin versus fiat currency to a new investment at Ripple, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper says he’s not backing down from his prediction that Bitcoin will hit $250,000 by 2023. In a new interview with YouTube’s Wendy O, Draper says he believes Bitcoin is already a stronger store of value than gold.
“Gold is so gone. What would you use gold for when you can store value with Bitcoin? It’s nonsense. But I’m sure a lot of people still do it, and they think of the gold standard as the good coin. But I look at it and I say, ‘What? You’re comparing Bitcoin to gold?’ It’s like 10 generations from when we used gold to transfer value.”
In addition to being a store of value, Draper says Bitcoin will be used widely as a form of payment once its value hits a high enough mark.
“I think eventually they’ll spend it when they feel like the value has come to a pretty good place. But, $250,000 per Bitcoin in 2022 is what I predicted. It might be 2023, but it’s in that range. And that’s only a 5% market share of all the currency in the world. So I can see why people who are real believers are holding on.
But I think eventually people will start spending it and using it. And it’s very useful for a lot of purposes. If I were Lucasfilm and I had to pay all 15,000 of those people who get credit at the end of the movie, I would sure rather have that be Bitcoin wallets than sending each of them an envelope, a check and a postage stamp. And if I need to send money to somebody overseas, this is a much better way to send it.”
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman disagrees. In a recent interview with CNBC, Schulman said he doesn’t believe any cryptocurrency can really compete with fiat.
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Citing a lack of retail adoption as a primary example of the industry’s struggles to hit the mainstream, Schulman sidesteps the use of cryptocurrencies for remittances, the use of Bitcoin as a store of value, and gold’s widespread use as a store of value – without retail integration.
“I have always thought that crypto was more of a reward mechanism for implementing blockchain as opposed to really a currency. And we’re not seeing many retailers at all accept any of the cryptocurrencies. But I think the underlying technology is still very interesting.”
Ethereum
The Ethereum-based development studio ConsenSys just sat down for an interview with Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Tushar Jain. According to Jain, Ethereum’s first-mover advantage is an asset, but it’s still too early to tell which smart contract platform will be the most widely adopted in the long run.
“I am the furthest thing from a maximalist that you will ever find. I think of everything in probabilities. I don’t think of anything as for certain. I think there is some probability that Ethereum is the winning chain. I don’t think it’s 100 or 0, but it’s in between. There’s some probability that any of these smart contract platforms end up being the dominant platform.
I think being a maximalist requires suspending your logic, suspending your ability to think objectively in order to provide yourself with some psychological safety. I can understand why some people would want that. This is a scary world we live in. But for the people who are really seeking truth in their beliefs, it’s very obvious that maximalism is less than ideal.”
Ripple and XRP
In a new blog post, Monica Long, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Ripple, breaks down the numbers of women in crypto.
“Like so many finance fields before – investment banking, hedge funds and trading – women are bowing out of opportunities in crypto, sidelining themselves from career-defining opportunities and major financial upside, all because of intimidation.
While the number of women in blockchain and crypto is growing, women are seriously underrepresented on teams and in executive roles. A December 2018 report detailed women comprise 14 percent of blockchain startup teams and 7 percent of executive roles. In contrast, women typically represent 25 percent of the workforce in otherwise notoriously male-dominated Silicon Valley big tech companies.”
Despite the numbers, Long reveals what the crypto industry really needs to reach that tipping point that will move the tech into the mainstream: women.
“Diverse voices in the room will advance historically male-dominated industries like finance or blockchain by leaps and bounds.”
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Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash
The Omise-backed crypto exchange Go.Exchange now supports Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Both coins are paired with Bitcoin and USD Coin.
Tron
Tron founder Justin Sun has released an overview on the network’s progress over the last six months, including a look at total daily transactions and market cap.
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IOTA
IOTA founder David Sønstebø just sat down for an interview with Hacker Noon. The interview covers the origins of IOTA and the platform’s efforts to create a new kind of distributed ledger.