Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has published an editorial in the New York Times explaining why Bitcoin is a good thing.
Andreessen Horowitz has been an early supporter of Bitcoin, an online form of currency that has recently been at the center of a lot of controversy. They have invested nearly $50 million in startups related to Bitcoin, and have been vocal about the positive benefits of such a system of payment.
“A mysterious new technology emerges, seemingly out of nowhere, but actually the result of two decades of intense research and development by nearly anonymous researchers,” the article begins.
He goes on to compare Bitcoin in 2014 to what personal computers were in the 70’s, and the internet was in the 90’s. Mainly in that they were major innovations that became mainstream successes and regular elements of society, despite naysayers claiming they would have no true application for the masses. Or, as claimed by some, would actually be negative forces in the world.
Bitcoin has recently been in the news thanks to its association with Silk Road. The underground black market for drugs being held on the deep web was one of many illegal activities using the currency. Since Bitcoin is mostly anonymous, and exists in a digital format rather than as a more real world form of money such as more traditional online banks, it was rife for criminal activity.
However, agencies have been stepping up – even law enforcement – to defend Bitcoin, stating that is mostly a well formed way of using funds on the web. One that is in many instances safer than using a debit or credit card, and with more potential than services like PayPal.
Those of us who have been in the freelancing world for awhile have known about Bitcoin for years, though it has been slow to gain momentum. Andreessen sees it as the future.
“Far from a mere libertarian fairy tale or a simple Silicon Valley exercise in hype, Bitcoin offers a sweeping vista of opportunity to reimagine how the financial system can and should work in the Internet era, and a catalyst to reshape that system in ways that are more powerful for individuals and businesses alike.”
If you are interested in seeing what a man who is a powerhouse in the financial sector thinks of such a tool, this is definitely worth a read.
Source: NY Times
