Speaking at the Institute of Directors’ annual convention in the Royal Albert Hall, Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation claimed that “When it clicks, we’re going to reach an inflection point and Bitcoin will become the new gold.” He claimed the currency was an “epic” revolution analogous to the printing press.
The Bitcoin Foundation is a lobbying group founded in 2012 that is aiming to “standardise, protect and promote” the use of bitcoin, but Mr Matonis claimed that countries such as Argentina were already adopting virtual currencies widely as trust in government declined and inflation rates increased.
“Half of the world’s population is unbanked,” said Mr Matonis. “They can’t even sign up for an online university course because they don’t have a credit card. When they try to better themselves they run into these payment barriers.”
Mr Matonis says that the unbanked population can’t even sign up for an online university course because they don’t have a credit card and when they try to better themselves they run into these payment barriers. He told that Bitcoin has issued $6bn worth of currency since it launched five years ago.
Bitcoin has Huge Scope among the Unbanked Population
However, according to him it has both struggled to attract mainstream adoption and also increasingly come to the attention of regulators. He believes that central banks could regulate people converting Bitcoin to other currencies, but could not currently regulate transactions conducted entirely in Bitcoin.
Jon Matonis says that users retained the choice to maintain privacy. He added that money doesn’t do bad things, people do bad things and according to him Bitcoin is a non political monetary unit that transcends borders. He says that in five short years Bitcoin has issued 12m units valued at $6bn and no other virtual currency has ever done that in the history of modern economics.
