Coin Center’s Executive Director Jerry Brito has said in an interview with Bloomberg Brief that the team at the non-profit organization can easily envision a world where Bitcoin proves to be highly successful even if most users are unable to tell what the technology actually does.
Jerry compares the current lack of knowledge and information about Bitcoin to that of the unawareness about the TCP/IP protocol. The executive director validates his comparison by saying that even though there are billions of internet users, most of them have no clue about the underlying Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
The US-based Bitcoin research and advocacy group has eminent Bitcoin personalities such as Marc Andreessen, Fred Wilson in the advisory board and Andreessen Horowitz as the benefactor.
Coin Center’s ED also addressed the issue of Bitcoin regulation in the interview. Jerry firmly believes that the United States has done remarkably well in maintaining a balance between preserving the freedom of action to develop the disruptive technology, while upholding laws in place against theft, fraud, money laundering and other illegal activities. However, he also feels that US lags behind in money transmission regulations because those are handled at state-level.
Tackling a question on corruption in the Silk Road case, the executive director brings forth an important aspect of this nascent technology.
“On the one hand, it shows how federal authorities were able to piece together Bitcoin transactions to get to an identity. On the other hand, Silk Road shows that digital currencies pose a new, but not insurmountable, challenge for law enforcement. It’s not any different than other new innovations — criminals will use a new technology first, and then the good guys have to catch up.”
On a concluding note, Mr. Brito says that ‘utility’ will be the best barometer of success of this technology. “For us, how well this technology is utilized will be the best way to tell if it succeeded.”