A lot of people pay attention to Erik Voorhees when he talks about Bitcoin, he is a
crypto pioneer.
Following the popping of the first bitcoin bubble in July 2011
where the price fell from $31 to close at $2 on 31st of
December that year, Erik predicted that the future bitcoin
price would hit thousands of dollars, like a stalwart high
conviction manager.
Bitcoin hit its all time high on the December 17th
2017 at $19,783.
Successful speculators in crypto have posted returns in the
thousands and funded the ICO boom. Many lost as the market turned
in early 2018 - crypto had its .com moment.
An economist by training who followed financial markets, Erik
was initially sceptical about Bitcoin. The more he read about the
power to liberate people from governments, central banks and fiat
currency the more his views changed until he got the Bitcoin
bug.
Erik is one of cryptos greatest libertarian advocates, and often
sounds like Thomas Paine.
He is the founder of Shapeshift, a non-custodial
crypto to crypto exchange, and has attracted investors like
Lakestar and Blockhain Capital, and heavy weight
insdustry influencers on the Board like Oliver Bussmann, the President and Co-Founder
of the Crypto Valley Association in Switzerland.
His past blockchain company affiliations include: BitInstant, Coinapult and, most notably,
SatoshiDice, which was responsible for most of the
Bitcoin transactions in 2012 and 2013.
Erik and I had a fireside chat at the Money2020 conference
Amsterdam in May, a month before Bitcoin hit its 2018 low of
$5,938. We caught up this week to further discuss where the crypto
market is going, overcoming industry roadblocks through education,
regulatory improvements, and Shapeshift's plans.
Where the Crypto is Market Going
Q. Have we hit a bear market in
cryptocurrencies?
A. Yes, I’d say we’ve hit a bear market in cryptocurrencies. In
terms of price I think we’ve neared our low, however we could very
well stay here for a while before a bull market returns. That being
said, crypto is crypto. This bear market could last for several
years, or we could see it end in a month or two. Neither would
surprise me. The one thing we can be certain of is that this is
uncertain territory, and while we have the freedom to speculate,
we’re really just along for the ride.
Q. What are cryptocurrencies biggest roadblocks to mass
adoption?
A. The biggest roadblock is education and habit, we need more
educational resources and simpler, easier to understand and less
intimidating products and services for first time users - The
education of people in how to safely and effectively use this
stuff, and the breaking of their old fiat-based habits.
We need better educational resources for non-technical
individuals with no experience in cryptocurrency or blockchain
technology. We can’t just keep catering this to ourselves, and
hoping for everyone else to get on board. We have to do more to
help people see the potential of this technology and make them
comfortable entering into it.
There are not technical aspects that are roadblocks right now…
there’s always innovation and improvement, of course, but crypto
works, and works decently, and the rate of advancement and
experimentation is phenomenal, so I wouldn’t mark this as a
concern.
Overcoming Issues with Global
Regulators
Q. Should regulators be as concerned as they appear to
be about decentralized exchanges?
A. I don’t think regulators realize the extent to which fully
decentralized services will displace and disempower them. Most
regulators are still trying to realize what Bitcoin is, debating
whether it’s money, what that means, and trying to see how many
tokens will be categorized as securities. They do all this while
decentralized alternatives are built, and the harder they clamp
down on these markets, the more power the decentralized
alternatives will have.
Ultimately, people want to be free, and deserve to be, so long
as they aren’t harming others, and since decentralized platforms
enable that tendency, they are inevitable. When it comes to
ShapeShift, many people wrongly assume that we’re decentralized.
ShapeShift is a non-custodial digital marketplace, meaning that
users can trade cryptocurrencies with our service, but we do not
hold their funds like a traditional exchange.
Q. What steps can regulators take on a global scale to
accept this technology?
A. Regulators can learn from jurisdictions such as Wyoming that
are implementing crypto-friendly regulation. It’s easy for
regulators to focus on the negative characteristics and risks
associated with cryptocurrencies, but they should recognize that
much of the reason this technology has been built is because people
are tired of trusting government bureaucracy to protect them. With
crypto technology, consumer protection can actually be programmed,
and can thus be far more effective than the status quo. If the
regulators truly want to protect people, they should be thrilled at
these developments.
Q. What steps does ShapeShift take to comply with
changing regulations?
A. We’re building out our compliance team, most recently with
the hire of Greg Arroyo as our Chief Compliance
Officer and Veronica McGregor as our Chief Legal
Officer. We’ve literally had to spend millions of dollars just to
navigate the changing and unclear global regulations, so we’re
taking it very seriously but it’s an immense burden that distracts
from innovation and productivity.
The ShapeShift Business Model
Q. What makes the ShapeShift business model so
special?
A. ShapeShift is non-custodial, meaning that we do not hold
customer funds. Security in terms of consumer protection is a core
principle for ShapeShift, and something we always consider as we
build our business.
Q. What were the motives behind ShapeShift acquiring
Bitfract, a diversified digital asset portfolio management
tool?
A. Bitfract was building a product that we at ShapeShift were
ourselves beginning to build. They’re vision played into our own
future vision for ShapeShift, so it seemed a natural move to
acquire the company.
Q. What does the ShapeShift strategic roadmap and
direction of travel look like?
A. We have some incredibly exciting projects in the works right
now, but we aren’t quite ready to talk about them just yet. As
these projects unfold and come to light, ShapeShift’s strategic
roadmap will begin to publicly take form along with them. However,
we did just announce the first phase of our Membership Program and
the FOX token, which gives customers better rates and higher
exchange limits.
Source: Forbes
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