Marcus Swanepoel is the CEO of BitX, a Singapore-based bitcoin services company focused on digital currency in developing markets.
In this opinion piece, Swanepoel tackles the issue of bitcoin's bad reputation, arguing this perception is more based on misinformation than fact.As an industry insider, it is sometimes very hard to admit that bitcoin suffers from serious negative perception issues: that in the minds of many people bitcoin is still automatically linked to thoughts of drugs, terrorist financing and money laundering.
Needless to say, this has massive implications for all potential stakeholders: It slows down consumer adoption, it has regulators set the bar unreasonably high for bitcoin companies to operate and many banks still refuse to provide bitcoin companies with simple operating accounts.
All of this results in the stifling of innovation, the creation of an unfair competitive environment, and ultimately, a negative connotation for the consumer who is meant to reap the benefits of this new and useful technology.
We’ve spent enough time with all these stakeholders to reasonably assert that most of these concerns are driven by perception and emotion, rather than facts and data. Are there risks around bitcoin? Yes, of course – they exist in all financial systems.
The more important questions are to ask what the nature and extent of these risks are, and if and how well they can be mitigated, relative to the benefits this new technology brings to society.
So let’s try and put a few things in perspective:
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