What the mainstreaming of Crypto Means for Normures – ryan

Its been a Big Week for Coinbase.
Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

The Rise of Bitcoin, Coinbase, and the Like is Becoming Harder to Ignore. I spoke with Features Writer Jen Wieczner About How to Think About These Once-Obscure Currencies as they Become more and More Unrenghakable.

Ben: For a long time, cryptocurrency like coinbase, whose triumphant debut on nasdaq you wrote about yesterday, saemed to be the province of a relatively Small Group of Tech/Futurist Types, who evangelized the potential of non-centralized digital Currency. Is it fair to say that between coinbase, the Surprising Durability of Bitcoin, and the cropping up of Other Currencies, Crypto Is Now Mainstream?

yen: I think you said that exactly right – if it was wek, this week, with coinbase public, cryptocurrency has officious gone mainstream. I Mean, Bitcoin is Approaching $ 65,000; Anyone Can Buy Coinbase Stock The Way You Waled Any Other Stock (If they Have No Idea How to Buy, or Interest in Buying, Crypto); My dad talk about nfts like he knows exactly what they are. I think a lot about the banks – a few years ago it was anathema to be into crypto and work at a Big Wall Street institution. Now, I’m Sure the Banks Themselves Are Looking at Coinbase and Wondering If they Should Get Into That Business, and Why It Took SO Long. You can do look at the newly confirmed sec Chairman, Gary Gensler, A Former Goldman Sachs Banker for the past Few Years Has Been Teaching on Blockchain and Digital Currency at Mit. All the Crypto Companies are excited Becuses it means that finally there’s some Making Financial Policy in Washington Who Actually Knows their Way Around This Stuff, Really knows what they’re’re talking about it to be comes to crypto. That’s never been true before. And is the Happening Sort of All of A Sudden, all at the Same Time!

Ben: DOES THIS I FINALLY HAVE TO START UNDERSTANDING WHAT THIS STUFF ACTUALLY MEANS? Or to put it another, slightly more serial way: is bitcoin, etc., on its way to be much a part of everyday markets that will be mandatory to undertand it for Basic Financial Literacy? Are we already there?

yen: Well, look, I think you can interact with bitcoin, and underestand its significance in a big-tyre sense, withouting able to fliently explain the intricacies of how it works Blockchain Opeates. (And i say that as someone so editors for years demanded that I exppara what a blockchain is, every time it was used – think about the early articles about the “novel coronavirus,” Before knew what it was; One Enough People Understand the Basic Outline of a Blockchain to Not Have to Explain It In Each Instance.)

I HOPE’S’S TRUE, CCAUSE I struggle to exploin some of the Deeper Complexities of the Technology, but I think the Basics that you need to have fairly straightforward: Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. Its founder is satoshi nakamoto, which is almost certific a made-up name, and nobody knows who that is. That’s Important, Because One of the Key Pillars of Bitcoin (and of a TRUE CRYPTACURRENMY) is that decentralized – No One Person, Institution or Government Controls it. That means, theoretically, you can Own it, trade it, move it acroSs international borders with the whims and police of regulators. Think How Different that is to the US Dollar, or any Currency willsed by a Central Bank, where the supply, and relative value among global currencies, is controlled by the government. And if you have come to think it in an an ede Simpler Way, Just Think of Bitcoin As a Digital Form of Currency – Something that instead of going in your Wallet, Movesly Across the Internet, is not so easly done with dollars in any form). That’s Going to Become More and More Relevant, Because a Lot of Governments Around the World, Including Potentially Our American Government, Are Considering “Digital Dollars” traditional Money as Easy (and Low-Cost) to Move as Cryptocurrencies are.

Ben: That related to my Next Question, Actually, Who is, How Might the Avent Person Interact With Bitcoin, or Something Like it, for the First Time? Forget About underestanding it fully, as you said – what Wold “Digital Dollars” look like, and how might it actually change the way People live?

yen: I mean, I think at the moment the Easiest and Most Practical – and Potentially Beneficial – Thing to Bitcoin is Just to Own it. Invest in it. Don’t worry about spending it. Yes, Bitcoin is more than $ 60,000, so you’ll say, i don’t have that kind of money to just sock away, and certific not in something as crazy volatile as Bitcoin! No problem. One Cool Thing About Cryptocurrency is that you can buy it on a fractional basis, so you can choose how to put in. Only have $ 20 to spare? You can buy $ 20 Worth, or .0003 of a Bitcoin. WHO KNOWS? If Bitcoin Skyrockets, Like Some People Are Predicting – OR EVES JUST CONTINES AT THE TREJECTORY HIGHT ON THIS – YOU COULD TO MAKE A LITTLE BIT OF MONEY. Of Course, the Basic Rule of Cryptocurrency Investing is Don’t Put More Money in it than you’re Willing to Lose, Becouse Yeah, This Stuff Goes Down Too, and Sometimes by a Lot. But Bitcoin has ben around for more than a decade now and seers to be with the test of time.

If you will want to buy, places like coinbase, robinhood, square, or tan paypal are a good place to start – they make it fairly to buy crypto, so ite a lot like buying a stock, or tan using venmo. They’re ALSO (increasingly) regulated, with High Levels of Cybersecity Defenses, which Means Your Money is Likely to JUST vanish (which has historically ben a problem in crypto). I SAY DON’T WORRY ABOUT SPEING ITEBOUSE THAT’S STILL A BIT HARDER TO DO. Sure, Tesla Says It Going to Start Accepting Bitcoin As Payment Soon, but i Imagine that a Fancy Electric Car is probably not the only you’re thinking of buying? And i mean, it goes up and down so much that you’d have no idea how Much you were actually spending. Essentially Cryptocurrency is an Assset, Like a Stock. You would go think about buy to buy a latte, or a pair of shoes or whats, with a share of gamestop, would? That would be insane. Neither far nor digital dolrs go, it”s probably useful to banks and businesses that weth large amounts of the Money All over the place. But i think it coulud also make it easier to that in your own life – whereather iTi’s paying rent, or more money to relatives overseas (which Currently Costs a Lot at Places Like MoneyGram and Western union). You might be able to get access to your paycheck sooner Waiting for the Money to Office Settle in Your Bank Account. A lot of the annoying parts of banking today have to do with the fact that it is so hard, time consuming and expensive to moving MAVEUSE AROUND NOTHING IS Truly Digital.

The Huge Irony of Coinbase and Crypto Mainstream is that it is decentralized as it was decentralized as it is decentralized as it is decentralized to be. Eve Paypal, Robinhood, ETC. – You’re Still Trusting Major Corporations With Holding Your Money, just like you do with banks. But maybe that too in the weeds… The Question Thats Becomes, How Much Do You Trust Your Bank? How Much Do You Trust These Quasi-Bank-Type Companies?

But it is probably fine, unless you, you know, were ino bitcoin you want to use it for illegal purposes – Buying Drugs, Terrorism Financing, etc. That’s Technically One of the Benefits of Crypto, but probably one that (HOPELLY) MOS People aren’t that interested in.

Coinbase definitely isn’t going to let you would that – and in fact, they have cooperated with the government, and the IRS, in the past, to root out who were using cryptocurrency for Illicit purposes. That’s the Other Side of the Coin of Regulation, and Being A Regulated Company – Your Money is probably safer, but is the then still subject to the rule of law

Ben: Does that take all the fun of it for the original crypto boosters?

yen: For some of me, yeah, coinbase basically saems like a sellout, or they think that it ha diverged from the original vision for Bitcoin. The idea that there is a rich, powerful company controlling Access to your Money is Maybe the Exact Thing they were trying to avoid. So Maybe they’ll preferably to manage their crypto, in their digital wallet – than’s fine, but it is not the easiest thing to do, and coma with a lot of responiallity. Maybe You Heard About The Guy Who Forgot the Code for HIS Crypto and in doing so Lost Millions of Dollars Worth of Wealth? But i think that you pay if you want something to be mainstream – for crypto to really catch on, it has to be something intuitive for mes People. Coinbase and Other Big Companies Are Making That Posible.