Originally published on CoinSpice on May 19, 2019.
TL;DR: The Peter Ryan Report is a series on the CoinSpice Podcast Network. Each episode, Ryan takes-on the world of cryptocurrency from a perspective you’re not likely to get anywhere else. In episode 3, he examines product market fit. Who is it needing bitcoin, cryptocurrency the most? Merchants? Retailers? Banks? His answer might surprise you. Ryan is steeped in the ecosystem, having been a noted analyst at larger news outlets and, more recently, Executive Producer for a new documentary on Amazon Prime, Rizqi Presents: Blockchain, a six part series exploring crypto in-depth. This podcast episode is available embedded in the article below, and on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Breaker, PocketCasts, PodBean, and Overcast.
Who Needs Bitcoin the Most?
In business, finding product market fit is among the great challenges for startups especially. If tech can be viewed in the same light, and a decentralized one at that without anyone in charge, then cryptocurrency has yet to really find its niche.
Ten years in, and the ecosystem is fractured into store of value versus medium of exchange versus unit of account versus smart contracts and world computer arguments. For Ryan, it’s a matter of focusing upon where, in the case of its peer-to-peer aspects, digital cash is most needed. If crypto is going to take-off, people have to use it, incorporate it into their lives, and gradually give it value.
Ryan examines how in late 2017 the Bitcoin phenomenon hit seemingly full stride. It was everywhere, and as a result BTC was climbing acceptance polls, onboarding folks all over the world. And then new users attempted to actually interact with it. Small block sizes, of course, caused mempool jams and congestion, long wait times, high fees. All that work to get people to listen, to sit down and think about decentralized, digital, uncensorable cash … gone horrible user experiences. Perhaps years lost in terms of setbacks.
Ryan believes maybe a next emphasis too few are considering is presenting crypto to dissidents and to those in countries with dire economic situations. The case is compelling almost immediately for crypto such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH), for example, because those two segments are able to escape their politicians’ whims … at least on that front. They also might be less inclined to abandon the tech if it experiences hiccups because crypto means so much more to them than, say, to the average person living within a more mature economy.