Page 10 - May 2018 Disruption Report Flip Book
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are a statement of faith in a new community of entrepreneurial cosmopolitans who hold themselves above national governments, which are viewed as the drivers of a long train of inequality and war.
And, as in the past, the public’s fascination with cryptocurrencies is tied to a sort of mystery, like the mystery of the value of money itself, consisting in the new money’s connection to advanced science. Practically no one, outside of computer science departments, can explain how cryptocurrencies work. That mystery creates an aura of exclusivity, gives the new money glamour, and fills devotees with revolutionary zeal. None of this is new, and, as with past monetary innovations, a compelling story may not be enough. (Project Syndicate, Robert J. Schiller, 05/21/18)
“One definitely cannot deny that Bitcoin has a utility (and likewise Ethereum)—to this effect,
there could always be a use-case market for these products,” said Azeem Azhar, editor of the technology newsletter, Exponential View. “Today, there are dozens of pilots and proofs of concepts taking place all over the world that are showing positive results – this is surely good news. But I believe we are still in the Internet of 1993, wherein Yahoo and Netscape haven’t yet shown up. There is surely much more scope for expansion of crypto-technology. At the same time, I don’t see crypto disintermediating traditional currencies in the next couple of years.” (Bank of the Future, Azeem Azhar, March 2018)
Will cryptocurrencies become an alterative to Wall Street for raising capital?
In a YouTube interview, NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway asked NYU finance professor David Yermack how initial coin offerings could displace initial public offerings:
Galloway: Whenever you see this sort of adoption [of cryptocurrencies], it usually indicates that the incumbent got greedy and had fat margins and was sticking its chin out. Is the back story here that investment banks with 7% fees on IPOs and venture capitalists with extremely costly forms of capital—doesn’t the ICO market, if it ever becomes legitimate, essentially say that banks and venture capitalists got greedy and fat and we’re adding the value that their fees justified?
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