A Call to Arms: Growing Crypto to 1B Users
Crypto needs your help.
I remember during the 2008/2009 financial crisis, how much anxiety and concern there was about the future — unemployment was rising, mortgages defaults were skyrocketing, and Wall Street executives were begging for a bailout.
Out of the ashes of old, a new financial system for the internet was born.
Satoshi inspired a world of shapers who posed big questions: What if we could make a better type of money? Money that wouldn’t care about the color of your skin or where in the world you were born. The first crypto pioneers sought a way to build an alternative system for maintaining and transferring wealth by designing money that married the properties of old currencies with features that make value resilient to manipulation.
A decade on and we find ourselves in the crucible of history again.
The world is experiencing three crises at once that are bringing the issues of systemic inequality sharply into focus. A global pandemic due to Covid-19, a global recession due to mass unemployment, and the greatest social awakening since the civil rights movement of the 1960’s all at the same time. So what are we going to do about it?
Just like in the old crime movies, you need to follow the money. And if it’s designed unfairly, distributed unequally, and there is no viable path to reform the incentives to change, then it’s time for plan B.
Let’s radically upgrade the financial system.
And for that to work, we need to get a billion people using it. Let’s go recruit them together.
We recently announced the Blockchain.com 2020 experience. Let’s say for the sake of argument there are roughly 50 million people in the world who own crypto, based on the total number of uniquely funded addresses
Just think for a minute, if all of us invite just 4–5 friends to download a wallet and send them each a small amount of crypto, we’ll grow the size of our community 5 times. Meaning we’d have roughly 250 million users within 12 months. If we all pledge then to do it again, we’ll hit 1.25 billion users. It’s that simple.
My personal goal for 2020 is to set up at least 500 people with their first Blockchain.com Wallet.
Like many people, when I first learned about cryptocurrency I was skeptical. It sounded complicated and frankly it was a little intimidating. Over time, and especially after using crypto in my day to day life my confidence in crypto currency increased.
It’s been my view for a long time that the internet economy would become the world’s growth engine but before it can reach it’s true potential, we need better financial plumbing. It’s time to reimagine the financial system and fix the intractable systemic problems caused by legacy banks.
The digital world is part of our DNA now, it’s part of how we share our experiences, consume our entertainment, and keep in touch with our loved ones. So it makes sense to me that money should be digital too and that we should all share in its value creation.
Over the past 7 years I’ve traveled all over the world to meet with crypto enthusiasts, skeptics, and people just as curious as I was when I fell down the rabbit hole of internet money. One of my favorite things to do in the world is a live demonstration where I send someone their first little bit of crypto. That’s where it becomes real and that’s when the magic happens. Thanks to software, anyone in the world can download a free app and instantly receive money from anyone else. And when you show the power of that simple idea to someone in real life, it starts to click.
Of course it should always have been possible to move money around as fast as we can move information over the internet.
From Hong Kong to Paris, Santiago to San Francisco, Istanbul to Bangalore, I’ve hosted meet ups with thousands of community members. And it’s these moments, when I’m on the road, that I’m constantly reminded of how sharing our work with people around the world can be someone’s moment of inspiration. And that’s how we grow our movement.
Like almost everyone in the world today, I’m in lockdown, and spending a lot of time reflecting on how we leave this world in a better place. For now, we’ll be doing all our events virtually, but the good news for crypto, it’s digital too. So be on the lookout for more content, and join me in setting up a few friends and family members with a wallet.
Blockchain.com has always been passionate about putting users firmly in control of their own financial future. And this means supporting the crypto community globally.
To keep up-to-date on our content, and connect with your crypto-loving peers, join our channels, and help us transition to a better financial future for everyone:
A Call to Arms: Growing Crypto to 1B Users was originally published in @blockchain on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
