The end of the pioneer era is no longer suitable for entrepreneurship

Intermediary transaction SEO diagnosis Taobao guest Cloud host technology Hall

"Will you use your savings to invest in bitcoin?"

This is a question that was raised on the Quora website at the end of 2013. At that time, the price of Bitcoin trading broke through 1000 of dollars, looking at the rise of bitcoin, many people do not willingly miss this opportunity to gold.

Today, however, given that the biggest trading platform Mt.Gox to file for bankruptcy, many people are more curious, "Do you trust Bitcoin?"

When I ask a few entrepreneurs in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the answer is, "it's not over, it's just going through the throes of growth." "In fact, we should also give these responses to add a reading, the Bitcoin Venture ecological circle of the first round of entrepreneurial boom, is now entering the second round."

The first round--in June 2013, when I went to the Bitcoin conference in San Jose, there were miners who told me that all his stuff was bought in bitcoin, which means that Bitcoin already has the property of money. If you look back at the "ecosystem" that you saw last summer at this bit-coin industry gathering--Another virtual money network Ripple, Exchange platform BitPay, online wallet Coinbase, and then the online shopping platform that we've covered to support Bitcoin payments-Bitfash, help users "dig mines "The Digcoin, you will find from the acquisition of Bitcoin, with the real world currency exchange, virtual wallet, online shopping, and even by another virtual money network to accept as one of the currency, at that time, the bitcoin has initially formed an industrial chain.

It also received attention from the government and offline markets. Vancouver set up Bitcoin ATM machine, convertible Canadian dollar to the German government recognized Bitcoin legal, the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission representatives at the hearing is proposed Bitcoin is a legitimate financial instrument, China, Russia and other governments to declare Bitcoin as illegal currency, the United States well-known airlines Virgin Air to accept bitcoin payment ...

In the process of development, the notion that Bitcoin is a bubble has never been discontinued. Goldman Sachs recently published a 25-page analysis that concluded that Bitcoin could not become a common currency. The Chicago School of law professor Eric Posner's view of Bitcoin he says bitcoin is a concern and is not easily trusted by the public because it is the first time in history to have a currency that is not controlled by the state and is not managed by a central bank (what Silicon Valley people call "going central").

But you see, this is the most exciting place for entrepreneurs-they will tell you that the spirit of the Internet is like this.

"In terms of math and computing, Bitcoin is the most incredible thing I've seen in years, and it's great." "Yesterday I saw one of the founders of PayPal in San Francisco, Max levchin--from PayPal to the present Affirm,max Levchin said he had always been interested in the financial industry-when asked how he viewed Bitcoin, he said," If it is to be used as a common currency for all countries, I think bitcoin may not be able to do it, but as a means of payment, Bitcoin is very promising. ”

That's his opinion. To the average person, the judgment of Bitcoin depends entirely on how you look at it. If you start with a speculative mentality, think of it as an investment, just as there is a risk of ups and downs as with all the means of investment; If you want to buy on Amazon with bitcoin like a geek or a miner, it's just one of the many ways you choose to pay.

The Bitcoin ecosystem is moving into the next stage because you can see that entrepreneurs are already trying to solve the problems that have not been solved in the last round of the boom-regulation.

First, why regulation is important. Suppose you put the money in the bank, unfortunately, the money is missing, then the real bank will have a corresponding regulatory system to investigate how the money lost, how to recover, how the bank to compensate for your loss; But the same thing, if you lose a bitcoin, then what? Now Mt.Gox happened to tell us that there is no regulatory trading platform once there is a problem, the user can do in addition to holding a sign standing in Mt.Gox office door to ask "where my money to go", but also to the media to spit out the bitter.

"I personally think that the problem with Mt.Gox is that too much resources are focused on this platform," said Ripple Labs, founder and CEO Chris Larsen, and several entrepreneurs, including him, say the Mt.Gox problem is mismanagement. In fact, last year Mt.Gox was once stopped by the United States government, but also attracted outside speculation about Bitcoin. Later in Bitcoin conference, when I asked several entrepreneurs Mt.Gox exactly how, they all shook his head helplessly said, Mt.Gox not to the Government to submit instruments so be shut, harm everyone think is the government in taking measures to counter Bitcoin.

Now it's as if the first round shuffle is over. "Today, the Bitcoin ecosystem is characterized by amateurs being out of business, and companies that really specialize and know how to grow on the premise of ensuring security are the industry's leading players." "In 2014, we will certainly see a management plan for bitcoin and more questioning," Bitfash founder Chris Woods, co-founder of the online shopping platform that supports Bitcoin as a means of payment. As the industry progresses, entrepreneurs offer more secure storage methods and improvements to payment protocols. ”

In fact, the change has already appeared. In February this year, bitcoin online wallet Coinbase announced that it had more than 1 million online wallet accounts on its platform, and issued a service called "security audits" that would ensure that the user's coinbase currency was "refrigerated". In other words, when the user's computer is not networked, the user on the Coinbase is also safe to exist locally, don't worry about waking up their own bitcoin. Brian Armstrong, one of Coinbase's founders, also told the media that Coinbase was about to hire an independent audit team to investigate and publish the Coinbase bitcoin and dollar deals. This is obviously a reference to the lessons of Mt.Gox and the introduction of the traditional financial industry regulatory means. "I am willing to communicate with regulators and we believe Bitcoin will eventually become a standardized industry," Brian Armstrong told the media. ”

As a means of payment, Bitcoin must first be able to store and redeem. Coinbasee can be said to be the platform products in this biosphere. Its new service means bitcoin from the platform, is in the "standardization" of the construction. "This is what we learned from the Mt.Gox event that companies that provide platform services in the Bitcoin ecosystem have to take responsibility first." "We think Bitcoin users will be more rational and understand the risks," Stephanie Wargo, vice president of the BitPay marketing department at bitcoin exchange and trading platform, said to Pingwest. To make Bitcoin a popular currency, it also requires startups to use more sophisticated technology to make it easier for ordinary consumers to trade with merchants. ”

(The figure for CoinDesk in March 2014 trading price trends, of which March 13 except Mt.Gox trading price fell to 132.99 U.S. dollars, the other trading platform price stability)