Google’s Director Ideas: Crypto Like Bitcoin Inevitable

What does the Director of Ideas at a company at the forefront of technology think about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin? Their inevitability, of course.

“I think it’s very obvious to all of us that [cryptocurrencies] are inevitable,” Jared Cohen of Google was quoted as saying in a conversation with company chairman (and former CEO) Eric Schmidt at SXSW to promote their jointly-authored book The New Digital Age, according to TechCrunch.

“There’s lots of value to it,” he said, and also “there’s a danger to it not being regulated.”

Cohen posed the question: “Is Bitcoin the model, or the master of crypto-currencies?”

It is a good question, but of course, one that can only be answered with time.

In Cohen’s opinion, the biggest problem cryptocurrencies face today is safe storage. Most people who wouldn’t consider themselves tech-savvy would likely face issues safeguarding their digital money, resorting to storing it on online services.

That, of course, is risky. Just ask the many Mt. Gox customer who were recently burned with the Tokyo-based exchange announced they lost upwards of 700,000 BTC.

So if you needed any more convincing that cryptocurrencies are — and will remain — a part of the digital world, here it is. [source: TechCrunch]