When Everyone Is Against Decentralization, But Buys Crypto Quietly — Vladimir Okhotnikov

Why Bitcoin Won’t Become a Payment Means — Vladimir Okhotnikov

Comparative Analysis of the USA and Europe. At the end of the era of tech giants and the advent of the era of decentralization. Blockchain threatens to topple Meta and Google. 

Americans owe banks more than $990 billion for the first time since 2008, China’s stock market is losing 7 trillion yuan, and MicroStrategy bought another 850 bitcoins, bringing its holdings to 190,000 coins. Only the SEC keeps its course unchanged.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is introducing new requirements that will require all participants in decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges that maintain liquidity in pools of more than $50 million to register with the regulator.

Gary Gensler follows the trend and tries to impose his own game, according to the rules of which key players in the DEX field, providing significant trading volume, may become subject to commission regulation if the size of their positions in the market exceeds the established minimum.

Meanwhile, in Europe the opposite situation is observed – the European community is enthusiastically exploring the prospects for using cryptocurrencies. After all, no one wants to “go to the bottom” with America when the next crisis comes.

That is why DZ Bank, Germany’s third largest bank, will launch a pilot program for working with bitcoins. It is expected that financial organizations included in its association will be served in this area, including local credit organizations such as Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Bayern Mitte eG.

“The consequences of a further increase in the dollar emission against the background of the flow of funds from fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies can be easily predicted – there will be a sharp increase in the money supply in circulation. The scale of this process may far exceed the crisis of 2008, which will seem like a “rehearsal” in comparison with the coming shocks,” crypto expert and financial analyst Vladimir Okhotnikov.

Don’t confuse economic bubbles with technology — Vladimir Okhotnikov

Immediately after the launch of a coin called dogwifhat, “startups” purchased 24 million tokens for just 1.6 ETH. Other users started buying this coin only after a quarter of an hour.

The price of the dogwifhat/WETH pair on UNISWAP immediately jumped to $0.3, and then began to fall rapidly. An interested group of people managed to sell most of their tokens, earning about $1.78 million. While the rest of the investors who bought this cryptocurrency later continue to hold the depreciated coins in the hope of growth.

Such a rush around risky assets is usually observed on the eve of economic crises. As long as people have enough funds, they are ready to invest them in dubious speculative instruments, guided by emotions and the desire for quick profit. However, with the onset of it and the fall in income, such adventures become irrelevant.

A clear example is the situation when investors in 2021 were actively persuaded to buy Bitcoin. The motivation was understandable, because almost all of us have a fear of missing out on a chance to get rich.

As a result, in just six months the price of the coin collapsed almost 4 times, depriving many of their hope for a comfortable old age.

“It is necessary to clearly understand the difference between investing and using technology as such. The use of blockchain for business development is progressive. However, the desire to speculate in the crypto market for the sake of profit can have disastrous results. I urge you to treat digital assets not only as a tool for quick enrichment, but also as a technology of the future,” emphasized Vladimir Okhotnikov. 

Steve Forbes against cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin is not suitable as a means of payment

In a recent speech, Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief and publisher of Forbes magazine, expressed skepticism about cryptocurrency. According to him, it is difficult to replace traditional fiat money and it is impossible to imagine Bitcoin as the main means of payment.

“…High volatility makes Bitcoin unsuitable for use as a reliable means of storage and payment…”, Mr. Forbes emphasized.

At the same time, Steve Forbes noted the similarity of some properties of Bitcoin with the properties of gold as a commodity. Based on this, he suggested that cryptocurrency developers should tie the value of their assets to the price of the “yellow metal”, thus giving them greater stability and protection against inflation compared to fiat.

We cannot completely agree that Bitcoin should be equated to gold. Vladimir Okhotnikov spoke very clearly on this matter,

“Mr Forbes has a point. First, Bitcoin’s high volatility makes it unsuitable as a tool for everyday payments. However, limited emission and decentralized nature make this cryptocurrency similar to gold as a tool for storing value in the long term. Secondly, Bitcoin has only some of the key properties of gold: it is limited in quantity and difficult to mine; at the same time it is easily divisible and portable. Finally, gold is also not ideal – it is absolutely impossible to use it to pay in a store.”

We agree that Bitcoin and gold play similar economic roles, being long-term instruments for storing value. But both tools are not ideal – they are absolutely not suitable for everyday transactions.

In general, Steve Forbes spoke rather restrainedly: recognizing the potential of blockchain technology and some similarities between cryptocurrencies and gold, he pointed out the risks of using these instruments as full-fledged money.

Of course, Bitcoin is a completely new asset, and it has both advantages and disadvantages. But a coin with a deflationary mechanism should not be underestimated.

The G7 will be overthrown — Chris Dixon

Last year, Chris Dixon was ranked number one on the Forbes Midas list. He is currently a partner at the world-renowned venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, specializing in investments in high-tech startups. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at eBay and co-founded and CEO of artificial intelligence company Hunch.

The author identified a pattern of movement, from social networks with artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency speculation – he called it all “machines against casinos.”

Drawing on his 25 years of experience in the IT industry, Dixon clearly and convincingly shows how the Internet has moved through three different eras. Thus he led to the critical moment in which we find ourselves today.

While blockchain is still not widely adopted at this time, Dixon believes that over time, decentralized, open-source systems will be able to give users more control and a share of the value they create. In his opinion, the Big Seven, which includes Meta, Tik-Tok, X, Google, will fade into the background.

“There are still many unresolved problems in the field of crypto and blockchain, including issues of management, tokenonomics and regulation,” emphasized Vladimir Okhotnikov.

“I liked how Dixon in his book tries to convey that blockchain is designed to dominate large technology companies. I agree with it,” the crypto expert added.

Indeed, corporations like Alphabet, Meta and others had a monopoly on receiving excess profits for an unjustifiably long time. Despite the current difficulties in the cryptocurrency space, one can firmly say that, ultimately, decentralization will destroy the established order, and the full potential of cryptography will be realized, even if it is necessary to fight hard with the SEC.

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