The Internet of Money (Advent of Justin-Bieber-Coin)
I've read the book named "The Internet of Money."
Below is my thought after reading:
The best book for the beginner of Bitcoin. It's easy to understand because the author explains the concept of Bitcoin with an intriguing story. Without background knowledge, you can understand the core concept of Bitcoin.
Below is the summary with important highlights.
The Evolution Bitcoin will Make
All the banks will have to change soon because everyone can be a bank today. You can not only create a bank account, but you can be a BANK.
How to Become a BANK?
Simply go to the App Store and then download a Bitcoin wallet app among the many of that. Choose what you like.
Without any bank, you can secure your money by cryptography. Since the advent of Bitcoin in 2009, the bitcoin network has never been hacked, which means it is the most robust network in the world.
Why did the TV Industry Decay?
Because they didn't change.
TV, newspaper, and radio were strong before the internet age. The reason is that ordinary people didn't have any way of transmitting information.
The Internet Gave the Leverage to the People
People could call, but it's one-to-one. On the other side, the internet is one-to-many. The internet made an information revolution made all people media.
How many media is in this world? The answer is the number of people around the world, right? The number of social media account is the number of the media today.
Thus, the TV industry lost the strongest advantage, which is the monopoly of the signal. As a result of exposure to competition, they are decaying. This trend will continue with acceleration.
A large Amount of Money will Proliferate
The common question of Bitcoin is, "how many coins will we have in the future?" The question is analogous to "how many media do we have today?"
The Answer to the Question:
- The number of PEOPLE globally is the number of MEDIA we have today
- The number of PEOPLE globally will be the number of COINS in future
Here is the highlight from the book:
When a 6-year-old can create a coin called Joeycoin to launch in his school as a popularity contest, the fact that that coin is also global, unforgeable, scalable, and can be used internationally doesn’t matter to Joey, as long as his five friends really like to use Joeycoin.
What if we have Justin-Bieber-Coin? The market capitalization will likely be more than small countries. The times are changing.
Kids will use Bitcoin in the Future
Who will make the future of our world? The answer is kids. So here is the important thought from the book:
When they face their first banker, they’re going to be, "Three to five days?! Business days?! What the hell is a business day? What do you mean you close at 5:00? I barely get off of work at 5:00. What do you mean I have to pay for you to store my money. This is ridiculous.
Actually, I already have the same feelings because almost all of my assets are on the blockchain, so I can easily transfer everywhere without humans and, of course, a bank.
The future kids will realize it's better to use a crypto wallet because that can create within minutes, and you can deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, and some Joeycoin or Justin-Bieber-Coin or something like that.
Who wins? Of course, we don't know the future, but the only thing I can say is that the banks will not be able to keep their position unless they change.
People Laugh at New Technology
Here is a fun part. Take a look at below:
- People laughed at the Car
- People laughed at the Electricity
- People laughed at the Internet
There are standard technologies today. But people and traditional media laughed at them. Let's study history.
People laughed at the Car
Below is the highlight from the book:
Do you know what the media said about the early automobile? They ridiculed cars. They mocked cars. Cars were slower than horses. Cars broke down all the time. Cars needed expensive gasoline that you couldn’t find anywhere. They required enormous amounts of infrastructure to work.
What's more. The British government made a Red Flag Act which almost banned cars, resulting in the UK's defeat of the car industry.
They passed a law called the Red Flag Act. The Red Flag Act required that any operator of a vehicle have three crew members on staff: a driver, an engineer, and a flagman. The driver would operate the vehicle, the engineer would supervise that operation, and the flagman would carry a red flag and run 100 yards ahead of the car to warn pedestrians of the imminent arrival of an infernal death machine that was going to mow them down. Guess what happened to the UK? They lost the automobile-industry race because they saw that technology and, instead of seeing potential, they allowed fear to define their reaction.
History repeats itself. I'm from Japan, and I'm seeing the same story: the Japanese government is almost trying to ban crypto technology with too much tax. We will see the result soon. I guess Japan will lose the crypto-industry race.
People laughed at the Electricity
Electricity is a common technology today, but look at this:
When electrification was introduced during the World’s Fair in Paris, the mayor of Paris at the time said, "Electricity is a fad, and as soon as we close the fair and take down the Eiffel Tower, electricity will vanish in history."
What do you think your friend says "electricity causes a fire, so you should not use it." It's crazy, right? But it was true in the past. People laugh at new technology for the first time, but eventually, technologies will improve, and people will adopt them.
People laughed at the Internet
Same with the internet. People said, "the internet is for criminals and sexual predators." After the small improvement of the internet, people said:
The internet couldn’t scale. That was the basic beginning of the scaling issue on the internet. It couldn’t scale, wouldn’t scale, clearly. Many people wrote their Ph.D. theses on why it wouldn’t scale.
The highlight above reminds me of the current state of the crypto industry. Many people say, "Bitcoin is dead" and "Ethereum is too slow to use." But the things in common between the internet and crypto are openness.
Openness = All People can Participate
Everyone can participate on the internet without permission. You can send an email globally. You can create a global business on the internet, the same as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto coins.
You can create a bank. You can create a property management system on the blockchain. The blockchain's data can't be altered, meaning people have an open global sharing database.
Today there are two billion people that is 25% of the global population can't access financial services because they can't get a permutation from the bank.
But in the near future, it will change. The innovation of blockchain and crypto technology is just the beginning. We will see the positive outcomes soon. This is why I like technology. Thanks for reading.
» The Internet of Money (Andreas M. Antonopoulos)