A recent roundtable at Bitcoin Miami 2023 questioned if bitcoin is as slow and as inefficient as many analysts claim it is. Panelists also found themselves wondering what the role of crypto company Strike was when it came to the future of BTC.
Bitcoin is Stronger Than Most of Us Think
Bitcoin has often been dubbed an “outdated” token. While it was the initial form of crypto and gave birth to the digital finance arena, there are many assets that have emerged since then that can allegedly do things much better. For example, Ethereum is often considered faster and more efficient when it comes to creating new tokens and blockchains, and thus it’s garnered more positive attention from developers around the world.
The recent roundtable in Miami was hosted by Rob Nelson and special guest Jack Mallers, the founder and CEO of Strike. Nelson started the conversation off by stating all the respect he has for Strike and all the great things he thinks it can do for bitcoin and the industry that envelopes it. He said:
What I like about Strike is in a country that doesn’t have a widespread bitcoin adoption in the U.S., it’s mostly a means of a storage of an asset. Strike changes that dynamic. People say it’s too slow, this is inefficient, and Strike kind of changes that.
Responding, Mallers commented that he thinks bitcoin isn’t as slow as everyone claims it to be, and he still thinks it’s the most effective digital currency available today. He said:
Bitcoin’s not too slow and inefficient. For people that say that that’s just a lie. Bitcoin is a bear instrument… it’s a physical instrument, but I cannot throw this microphone from here to Nigeria in less than a second and for free because this physical instrument doesn’t travel that fast in that far, but a bitcoin does… and the reason that’s so cool is because bitcoin is the first digital bear instrument and because it’s digital, it could be thrown over the internet.
It’s a “Bear” Instrument
He continued with:
Before a bear instrument was digital and physical money was, digital payments were promises of future settlement because you cannot physically move a dollar. When you swipe your Visa card, you’re intending to pay Chipotle, but Chipotle doesn’t get paid for two days to two weeks because it’s a promise of future settlement and promises can be broken… The fact that we now have a digital bear instrument should disintermediate a lot of that. It should drive costs down. It should open up innovation… If you have a physical bear instrument that doesn’t need credit and doesn’t need promises, you get financial inclusion, you get lower costs, you get lower fees, you get faster settlement[s], and it’s beautiful