The future’s bright for ‘serial killer’ Bitcoin

When technology is disruptive, it’s labelled a category killer. Bitcoin, however, is more of a serial killer that will go through dozens of industries, according to cryptocurrency and blockchain investor Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital.

Right now, the most compelling use cases are for cross border payments and storing your wealth, he told BNN Bloomberg.

But whilst it’s great for migrants sending money home to family members, what, asked BNN Bloomberg, is the relevance to people in the developed world? With the rise of contactless and mobile payments, there isn’t much friction when buying a coffee, for instance. Is Bitcoin just a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist?

“But there is friction when sending money from the US to the UK,” Morehead responded. “As things stand, it is literally faster to grab a suitcase of cash, go to the airport and fly to London. With Bitcoin you can send it in a matter of seconds, and pretty much for free, routing around the payment rails that are very slow and expensive.”

Within the next decade, the cryptocurrency will also have carved a niche for itself in the in-store payments space, he insisted. “Internet protocols revolutionised so many things in our lives, but they didn’t touch banking, credit cards, remittances and that’s what Bitcoin is doing,” Morehead said.