On a recent Bloomberg West interview by Roger McNamee, co-founder at Elevation Partners, a comment on Bitcoin as a currency stood out. He mentioned several insightful cornerstones needed for Bitcoin to succeed, but the most curious was his suggestion that a major name should back it, perhaps even Bloomberg itself.
His argument is a valid one. Bitcoin or any similar digital currency is already needed for internet shopping use. The main trouble with Bitcoin is that as a fiat currency, but it is not backed by anything, like gold for example. As a result, it lacks trust from a mass populace. Without wide range trust, no currency can get accepted widely, especially globally for internet transactions.
Roger said that in the past, he told Google to be a bank. At least for internet transactions anyway. Warren Buffet is not yet a believer in Bitcoin today, he does not trust it and sees no intrinsic value according to recent interviews.
Trust for any future digital currency needs to solid, and Bitcoin today, does not have that trust with enough users. Mt Gox and many other recent difficulties have destroyed that trust too early. It can recover, but what trust sequence should be done to not repeat the same mistake again?
Banks and many financial firms trust Bloomberg as a system, so Roger thinks Bloomberg should back any future digital currency. Bloomberg would give Bitcoin or its equivalent, instant trust and credibility globally. If that is his first thought, then a mobile device hardware maker should be joined into this new phase of internet shopping. Perhaps Blackphone by Silent Circle could be such a choice? It recently launched February 24, 2014 in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress, and is built by former military experts (US Navy Seals & UK SAS) with mobile smart phone security at its core. Perfect for trust.
If trust of a backed currency is needed, shouldn't solid trust in a non-hacked mobile platform be integrated at the same time? Blackphone may not be the number one smart phone brand today, but it is a new secure standard, so others would follow. Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Facebook all need a new standard to grow internet transactions further.
Given that even Apple can be hacked, why not start with the least hacked, most safe mobile device first? Fewer mistakes could be made in any next phase. The world needs a digital currency, even if Bitcoin does not work out. We seem to understand what is needed, but now need to execute on a better safer Bitcoin equivalent, with Bloomberg & Blackphone as partners, maybe Bitcoin does have a chance.
For the full Bloomberg West interview with Roger McNamee click here
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