Cryptocurrency as a term became a worldwide phenomenon in December 2017. That was the time when bitcoin reached its highest value. Soon enough everybody started talking about it, not just that one weird guy which everyone avoids. The genie was out of the bottle and you could not ignore it anymore.
You had a friend like this, haven’t you?
Just like Merriam-Webster dictionary couldn’t. They had to add a definition of cryptocurrency in March 2018. That’s how you know the things became real.
Over the past decade, a lot of thoughts and quotes about cryptocurrency accumulated. I managed to gather some of them, so you can see what people were saying before it was cool.
Economists predicted it
First, let’s start with a couple of quotes from economists who predicted the emergence of cryptocurrencies.
Milton Friedman is an economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexity of stabilization policy.
In an interview excerpt below, you can see that he basically saw it coming:
I think the internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government. The one thing that’s missing but that will soon be developed is a reliable e-cash. – Milton Friedman ~@cryptpresso
Second economist, a Nobel Memorial Prize recipient as well, is Friedrich Hayek. As a defender of classical liberalism, he claimed that we should denationalize money:
I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of the government, that is, we can’t take it violently… all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop. – Friedrich Hayek ~@cryptpresso
You can watch the whole interview below:
Developers made it a reality
With those ideas in mind, someone behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin White paper. That event changed the world and introduced something practically unstoppable. Bitcoin was born, and with it cryptocurrencies:
With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless. – Satoshi Nakamoto ~#cryptocurrency #bitcoin #satoshi @cryptpresso
With cryptocurrencies, we reached a new stage of currency:
There are three areas of currency – commodity based, politically based, and now, math based. – Chris Dixon ~@cdixon @cryptpresso #cryptocurrency
Now money is free of human behavior, and therefore corruption:
We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error. – Tyler Winklevoss ~@tylerwinklevoss @cryptpresso #cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is not “unregulated”. It is regulated by algorithm instead of being regulated by government bureaucracies. Un-corrupted. – Andreas Antonopoulos ~@aantonop @cryptpresso #bitcoin
Yet another function of the government is placed in the hands of people:
I think the fact that within the Bitcoin universe an algorithm replaces the functions of the government is actually pretty cool. I am a big fan of Bitcoin. – Al Gore ~@algore @cryptpresso #bitcoin
And cryptocurrencies are not just a threat to the governments, but to the big corporations as well:
Bitcoin will do to banks what email did to the postal industry. – Rick Falkvinge ~@Falkvinge @cryptpresso #bitcoin
Now everyone can use it
They put the power into the hands of a common man and got rid of the fees:
At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency, designed by very forward-thinking engineers. It eliminates the need for banks, gets rid of credit card fees, currency exchange fees, money transfer fees, and reduces the need for lawyers in transitions… all good things. – Peter Diamandis ~@PeterDiamandis @cryptpresso
Seems too good to be true, I know, but it is a genius idea. And it is possible:
When I first heard about bitcoin I thought it was impossible. How can you have a purely digital currency? Can’t I just copy your hard drive and have your bitcoins? I didn’t understand how that could be done, and then I looked into it and it was brilliant. – Jeff Garzik ~@jgarzik @cryptpresso
If you don’t understand it right now, don’t worry. Many people don’t get it yet:
Cryptocurrencies – everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers. – John Oliver ~#cryptocurrencies @cryptpresso @LastWeekTonight
But this guy in a bitcoin suit can clear everything up:
I’m a virtual currency, worldwide you can send for little to no fees, open-source, not controlled by any government, corporation or individual. It’s financial freedom, BRO! – Man in a bitcoin suite ~#bitcoin @cryptpresso
Just kidding.
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