Speaking at the Wired Money 2015 event, bitcoin expert and author Andreas M Antonopoulos said that “Bitcoin is the Internet of Money and currency is just the first act.”
Antonopoulos said that most people don’t have the correct understanding of money, emphasizing that there is a fine distinction between money and currency.
“Bitcoin is not a currency,” he said. It is a “network-centric model for recording ownership and trust“. It is the “internet of money and currency is just the first act“.
Bitcoin Can Solve Identity Theft Problem
While most of the cryptocurrency experts dwell on the transformations that the digital currency can bring about in the financial services industry, Andreas believes that there is an even better application of this disruptive technology: solving identify theft.
Stating that personal information is collected in the traditional banking system, hence consumers are always exposed to identity fraud. The cryptocurrency has the fundamental advantage given that it does not depend on either of the transacting parties’ personal information to complete the payment.
Blockchain Is Boring, Focus On Bitcoin
According to Andreas, the technology underpinning the digital currency is boring in itself. He said, “The Blockchain itself is boring technology… it’s Quicken, only slow and distributed.”
Bitcoin Is Not Ready For Greece
Andreas told WIRED editor David Rowan that “Greece is not ready for bitcoin and bitcoin is not ready for Greece.”
Rumors have been doing the rounds that in case of an exit from the Eurozone, Greece may switch to Bitcoin instead of opting to print money.
He clearly underlines the problem of liquidity – a problem which cannot be simply solved by dropping Euro and adopting bitcoin.
However, the digital currency can definitely prove to be a safe income preservation tool in the current Greek scenario. “Bitcoin is about people having a safe haven out of the current currency control systems,” he said.
