“The B Word”, a much-anticipated event, finally happened last Wednesday, July 21, 2021, with many viewers (and traders) excitedly (and anxiously) watching on as prominent speakers discussed and shared views on Bitcoin.
The event was widely successful in many respects, with the title “The B Word” setting up the event to generate additional buzz by serving as a cryptic taunt to those scared of speaking the word “Bitcoin.” Many deemed this event (and other grounding measures) as necessary; one week Bitcoin is being embraced by large financial institutions, seemingly integrating it into the mainstream, with the next week seeing company representatives or analysts rejecting the currency entirely.
We can imagine that crypto enthusiasts had this event on their calendar, as hearing 3 prominent speakers in the world of finance and tech speak up about Bitcoin could only mean good things for both the crypto ecosystems well as the fundamental value of Bitcoin itself.
Taking the front and center stage is Twitter and Square founder, Jack Dorsey; founder and self-proclaimed “Technoking” of Tesla, Elon Musk; and Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Ark Innovation, Cathie Wood.
Care to see what they had to say?
First Up, Cathie Wood
“Money has powerful network effect qualities.”
That it does, Cathie, that it does. This means that the more people that use a product or service, the more value it retains.
Cathie Wood has long been a proponent of disruption and innovation. (Perhaps she should consider working here at Edge?)
Her progressive insight into the world itself has led to her and the Ark Innovation ETF establishing a loyal following of tech-loving/risk-taking/forward-thinking investors.
The most prominent point that Wood made was that Bitcoin can play a substantial role in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), potentially serving as the best form of money from that perspective.
One of the problems that the ARK founder shed light on was remittance fees. People are currently paying massive fees sending money to their families in other countries using traditional transfer methods.
The global remittance industry is a US$700 billion global market. Helping solve this issue is “a social responsibility” according to Wood.
Additionally, Wood fully supports companies putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet. However, she urges that the digital asset is accounted for as an intangible asset. One of her goals is to get the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to grasp this concept and implement it moving forward.
A few stand-out quotes from Wood include:
“ARK has stood for two things – democratization and transparency… we have Bitcoin’s DNA from that point of view. One of ARK’s missions is to educate.”
“Convergence of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to change the world that we cannot imagine right now… solving more problems while creating opportunities,” Wood optimistically stated.
The ARK founder also warned, “Deflation and counterparty risk will come from companies that didn’t innovate enough while leveraging up to buy back stock and pay dividends. Their products will go obsolete, and the companies will be left with debt.”
Did you know? Deflation is the opposite of inflation, when the value of something in an economic perspective goes down gradually. Not to be confused with disinflation, which refers to the rate of inflation slowing down.
Counterparty risk is the risk that one of the parties in a business transaction will not fulfill their contractual obligations.
Next, Mr. Square Himself, Jack Dorsey
As we know from many tweets sent out via the social media platform he created, current Square CEO Jack Dorsey has high hopes for digital assets, especially bitcoin.
“My hope is that is creates world peace or helps create world peace,” Dorsey said during the marquee keynote panel “Bitcoin as a Tool for Economic Empowerment” at Wednesday’s event.
The many flaws of the current banking system are thought to be the indirect cause of much of the world’s problems.
Since 2018, Dorsey, who last year purchased around US$50 million in Bitcoin via Square, has been saying that the cryptocurrency will become the world’s “single currency” eventually. Square currently holds 1% of its balance sheet in crypto.
To usher the needed restructuring of the flawed financial systems, Dorsey shared last week that Square is creating a new business that emphasizes “decentralized financial services” or “DeFi,”using Bitcoin.
DeFi applications operate their own version of a financial system, primarily running on the Ethereum blockchain.
On Twitter, Dorsey spoke about the company’s new focus on building an open developer platform with a goal of making it simple to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services.
According to Dorsey’s words during “The B Word,” the monetary system today comes with many hidden costs and distractions, which takes attention away from bigger problems within the system.
“We have all these monopolies of balance, and the individual doesn’t have power and the amount of cost and distraction that comes from out monetary system today is real and it takes away attention from the bigger problems,” Dorsey explained.
“All these distractions that we have to deal with on a daily basis take away from those bigger goals that effect every single person on this planet and increasingly so. You fix that foundational level and everything above it improves in such a dramatic way. It’s going to be long-term, but my hope is definitely peace,” the Twitter founder added.
Cathie Wood was very happy about Dorsey’s words and actions last week, including his addition of US$50 million in Bitcoin to Square’s balance sheet.
So happy in fact, that she went and bought over US$50 million worth of Square stock. US$53.6 million to be exact.
The camaraderie between the speakers on this unprecedented event was nothing short of inspiring, even from a computer screen. The collective energy and progressive intentions coming from these 3 influential figures was very, very noticeable.
Last But Not Least, Technoking Speaks
Elon Musk changing his official title from CEO of Tesla to “Technoking” is nothing short of the perfect display of his unique, unconventional, intriguing, and controversial, personality.
First thing first, in true Elon fashion, the price of Ethereum rose on Wednesday afternoon after Elon disclosed that he owns a chunk of the cryptocurrency. Ethereum’s spiked 12% higher Wednesday during the event.
Musk stayed true to his words, citing his concern for Bitcoin’s energy usage, yet still showing overall support for the world’s leading digital currency.
“One thing you do need to watch out for with crypto, especially bitcoin, using proof of work, using energy that’s a bit too much and not necessarily good for the environment,” said Musk.
Musk continued to explain that Bitcoin is indeed powered by renewable energy, therefore Tesla will likely accept Bitcoin for transactions again in the future.
During the conference, Musk stated he only owns one publicly traded stock, which is Tesla. His other holdings are limited to Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum, as well as the private SpaceX, which Elon founded in 2002.
In shedding light on his Bitcoin holdings, Musk stated that his crypto portfolio is still held with a long-term vision in place. He confirmed that Tesla and SpaceX both own Bitcoin, but no other cryptocurrency yet.
“If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump but I don’t dump,” Musk said. “I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that. I would like to see bitcoin succeed.”
Bitcoin’s price saw the most movement it has seen since mid-June, reaching a high of US$32,800, 10% higher than the previous 24-hour period. Those gains settled in to around 6% towards the end of the day.
Musk asked his fellow conference participant a question that must have had viewers on the edge of their seats. To Dorsey, he asked if Twitter has considered taking Bitcoin as payment from the platform’s advertisers in essence of supporting the cryptocurrency.
Dorsey replied in approval of that concept, however, the Twitter founder said he was more focused on establishing “economic incentives in the network itself without having to rely on advertising.”
Musk proceeded to press Dorsey for a yes-or-no answer. Dorsey, who chuckled in a light-hearted reply, once again addressed his admiration for the idea, but stopped short of a commitment on the spot to do so.
A live conference with Elon Musk wouldn’t be a live conference with Elon Musk without a mention of Dogecoin, would it?
To Musk, the “DOGE community” is very irreverent, and has “great memes.” Tesla’s Technoking stated that he loves dogs and memes.
We suppose that is as good of a reason as any to be a fan of the meme coin.
“The most ironic and entertaining outcome would be the cryptocurrency that was started as a joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies ends up being the leading cryptocurrency,” Musk said, chuckling.
Dogecoin also jumped up 10%, hitting a high of just under US$0.19.