1 00:00:06,965 --> 00:00:08,883 Blockchain powered decentralization 2 00:00:08,883 --> 00:00:12,762 has the potential to impact society in a variety of ways, including around 3 00:00:12,762 --> 00:00:15,807 how much power companies and governments have. 4 00:00:16,516 --> 00:00:18,226 Blockchains are immutable. 5 00:00:18,226 --> 00:00:21,521 The record that's created cannot be changed by anyone, 6 00:00:21,855 --> 00:00:25,358 so whatever is put onto a blockchain you can trust and rely 7 00:00:25,358 --> 00:00:28,695 it's accuracy. That's pretty powerful in a world of deep fakes, 8 00:00:28,695 --> 00:00:33,074 in a world of exposure of corruption and graft all over the world. 9 00:00:33,116 --> 00:00:36,327 Blockchains give us a financial infrastructure 10 00:00:36,327 --> 00:00:40,790 that we can deploy worldwide. When certain crises or things break out. 11 00:00:40,790 --> 00:00:43,460 Sometimes it takes a while to get that funding to people. 12 00:00:43,668 --> 00:00:47,630 But with newer technologies, we can fund entire regions and places more quickly 13 00:00:47,630 --> 00:00:48,339 and overnight. 14 00:00:48,339 --> 00:00:52,093 Oftentimes when we give our power away, that power is actually used against us. 15 00:00:52,093 --> 00:00:54,846 With blockchain technology, it's all about giving the power 16 00:00:54,846 --> 00:00:57,223 back to the user, giving the control back to the user. 17 00:00:57,515 --> 00:01:01,811 When you go on Instagram, you are beholden to the Instagram's 18 00:01:01,811 --> 00:01:04,814 algorithm of what they show you how you discover 19 00:01:04,814 --> 00:01:08,109 new content and how you engage with the platform itself. 20 00:01:08,109 --> 00:01:10,236 And I think that works for many reasons. 21 00:01:10,236 --> 00:01:13,990 Moving forward, however, I think decentralization has a role 22 00:01:13,990 --> 00:01:18,369 to play in creating systems where users can have more control 23 00:01:18,369 --> 00:01:22,499 over their data, over their privacy, and over how they interact 24 00:01:22,499 --> 00:01:24,125 with any platform online. 25 00:01:24,125 --> 00:01:27,670 One of the most interesting things about cryptocurrencies is they're universal. 26 00:01:27,879 --> 00:01:31,382 There's no Bitcoin central authority, and so everybody can use it 27 00:01:31,508 --> 00:01:33,760 without having to trust some particular government 28 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:35,136 or some particular central authority. 29 00:01:36,304 --> 00:01:39,307 There are good reasons for having centralized entities. 30 00:01:39,432 --> 00:01:42,477 For one, they can afford certain kinds of protections 31 00:01:42,477 --> 00:01:44,104 that a decentralized entity can’t. 32 00:01:44,104 --> 00:01:46,064 If there's not the entity 33 00:01:46,064 --> 00:01:50,110 that's in control or the entity that is there to protect you from, say, 34 00:01:50,151 --> 00:01:54,739 frauds and scams like banks can do, then consumers, for instance, are vulnerable 35 00:01:54,823 --> 00:01:58,535 because there's no central authority to appeal to. 36 00:01:58,993 --> 00:02:01,788 If you lose your money, it's final. 37 00:02:01,788 --> 00:02:03,873 Hacks, thefts are 38 00:02:03,873 --> 00:02:07,669 quite scary when you're holding bitcoin and that's always going to be an issue. 39 00:02:07,710 --> 00:02:11,881 It's actually an issue if with anything in life, with any physical property. 40 00:02:14,467 --> 00:02:16,845 Bitcoin itself is a a hyped up fraud. 41 00:02:17,053 --> 00:02:20,181 So I think we're seeing lots of scams and frauds for a variety of reasons. 42 00:02:20,223 --> 00:02:23,351 One is that it's really complex. 43 00:02:23,351 --> 00:02:26,354 It's difficult to understand what's going on. 44 00:02:26,521 --> 00:02:30,316 The government doesn't really have a great grip on what's going on, 45 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,362 so you have government confusion and therefore lack of oversight. 46 00:02:34,571 --> 00:02:39,284 You have, frankly, some very intelligent people operating cryptocurrency companies, 47 00:02:39,576 --> 00:02:41,786 and you have lots of people who want to make a lot of money 48 00:02:42,036 --> 00:02:44,581 and lots of gullible people you put all that into the mix. 49 00:02:44,622 --> 00:02:45,832 You've got a recipe for disaster. 50 00:02:45,832 --> 00:02:50,211 My biggest worry about the blockchain space is that 51 00:02:50,628 --> 00:02:55,633 we need to protect users and ensure that their security comes first. 52 00:02:55,675 --> 00:02:59,512 I think it's very clear that we need government regulation. 53 00:02:59,846 --> 00:03:04,142 We have seen the collapse of big crypto firms. 54 00:03:04,392 --> 00:03:06,311 We have seen all kinds of problems. 55 00:03:06,311 --> 00:03:08,479 People are going to get their money stolen. 56 00:03:08,479 --> 00:03:11,691 At the end of the day, you need the government 57 00:03:11,691 --> 00:03:14,777 to regulate to sort of control the direction of this. 58 00:03:15,236 --> 00:03:19,741 In January alone, Bitcoin is heading to a roughly 40% gain. 59 00:03:19,782 --> 00:03:23,036 The always volatile cryptocurrency market took a dive this week. 60 00:03:23,036 --> 00:03:27,624 The reason there's so much volatility in prices of crypto assets 61 00:03:27,624 --> 00:03:31,169 is we don't quite know what the future is. 62 00:03:31,502 --> 00:03:33,504 We don't know what regulations are going to be. 63 00:03:33,671 --> 00:03:35,465 We don't know all the uses. 64 00:03:35,465 --> 00:03:36,799 It's very early days. 65 00:03:36,799 --> 00:03:40,845 Nothing is guaranteed to go up forever and nothing is guaranteed 66 00:03:40,845 --> 00:03:42,931 that is going to continue to go down forever. 67 00:03:43,014 --> 00:03:48,228 Until really Bitcoin succeeds, the price won't start to stabilize. 68 00:03:48,228 --> 00:03:49,896 It will still be very volatile 69 00:03:49,896 --> 00:03:54,359 but eventually become improve itself and the price will become more stable 70 00:03:54,359 --> 00:03:57,570 I believe. It's valuable on the condition that people value it. 71 00:03:57,570 --> 00:03:59,405 It's valuable on the condition that 72 00:03:59,405 --> 00:04:03,117 there are enough people who will accept it as a means of trade. 73 00:04:03,493 --> 00:04:07,080 If no one wants to accept it as a form of payment, 74 00:04:07,455 --> 00:04:08,623 then no, it doesn't have any value. 75 00:04:08,623 --> 00:04:11,876 Currency isn't the kind of thing that has value independently. 76 00:04:11,876 --> 00:04:13,336 What people think about it.