Jack Dorsey hopes bitcoin will help bring about world peace https://t.co/0WnM7aX2L3

— CNBC (@CNBC) July 21, 2021

 

When asked about the future of Bitcoin, Jack Dorsey replied, “My hope is that it creates world peace or helps create world peace.”

But what does Dorsey actually mean?

Most of us heard about Bitcoin and its negative impact on the environment, governments around the world are concerned that cryptocurrencies could be used for money laundering, and the average person doesn’t even know what this is all about.

Hearing Cathie Wood, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk talking about the opportunities and challenges of this new technology was one of the most mind-blowing conversations I ever witnessed.

While Jeff Bezos is flying to space, Musk and Dorsey try to solve the biggest problems of our time. Musk is mainly focused on reducing the impact on the environment, and Dorsey wants to give more power to the individual—but how are they trying to achieve that?

Earlier this year, Musk announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a payment for their cars, which led to a huge rise in the value of the world’s most famous cryptocurrency. A few weeks later, he took back that decision because he was worried about the massive energy consumption of Bitcoin.

He was accused of manipulating the markets with his statements—and it is undeniable that his words had an impact, but now he finally explained why he did what he did. His main concern was that the boom earlier this year (caused by his announcement) made it more attractive for so-called miners to use gigantic amounts of energy to get more Bitcoins.

But wait, what does that even mean? Let’s take a closer look at how money actually works.

The main reason why our financial system needs banks and institutions is creating trust on both sides when exchanging money.

When I give you 10 bucks, you need to be sure that the money is real and that you can use it to pay for things you would like to buy. If you sent me 10 dollars to Germany, I need to convert them into Euros because I live in Germany and also need to be sure that the money will be accepted when I decide to spend it.

That’s how financial institutions, governments, and stock exchanges created a system of trust—but as we know, that system is far from being perfect. As of now, we need a third party that ensures the worth of our money—and that’s where cryptocurrencies come to play.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies use something that is called a blockchain. The blockchain saves every single transaction as a data block, so there is no need for any bank, institution, or government to act as a supervisor. This technology has the potential to create trust on both sides of a monetary transaction, as you can’t manipulate the blockchain itself.

The downside of that technology is that the bigger the blockchain gets, the more energy is used to process all the information.

But what if we could use renewable energies to limit the impact on the environment?

Dorsey said, “That’s the incentive that I think is the most valuable. How do we use what is just being dumped on the ground? Bitcoin is incentivizing innovation in the energy space. Using that energy to power the money system for the planet is a worthy trade-off.”

And it goes even further than that. Cathie Wood explains that cryptocurrencies could actually help the renewable energy sector to become more profitable (by using leftover energy) and reminds us that traditional banking also relies on gold mining which has a far worse impact on the environment.

Another big argument against cryptocurrencies are concerns about accessibility.

To use Bitcoins as a currency, folks around the world need access to fast and stable internet connections—and that’s where Musk’s satellites come to play. His goal is to create an infrastructure of connectivity that allows everyone on the planet to access this technology.

If everyone on the planet is able to own a cryptocurrency wallet, then people could do business with each other without any limitations of currencies, governments, or locations. Dorsey wants to make cryptocurrencies the native payment method on the internet.

Dorsey goes even further and speculates how his business “would certainly not have the dependency we have upon the advertising business model if Bitcoin existed pre-Twitter.” Let that sink in.

The CEO of Twitter openly admits that he doesn’t like relying on the advertising business and feels that implementing cryptocurrencies could give a huge boost to businesses around the world. Cathie Wood points out that overcoming the boundaries of currencies and governmental control could become the biggest driver of innovation in history.

Dorsey and Musk both expressed their desire to give more power to the individual. Both billionaires (which is quite an irony) are sceptical about big corporations and governments, and they believe that every individual should be able to do business with anyone else on the planet without any restrictions caused by nations, institutions, or locations.

As of now, 1.2 billion people on this planet are not able to store value in their local currency because of inflation. Venezuela has become one of the most cryptocurrency-using nations because their currency isn’t worth much compared to the almighty dollar—the same goes for many nations in Africa.

Imagine the potential for people living in these countries if they could finally access global markets without depending on their own government and its monetary policies.

I know this all sounds pretty complicated and far-fetched, but when the internet came up decades ago, there were also many folks who didn’t believe in it. Today, I can write an article in Germany and make it accessible for (almost) everyone on the planet within minutes—just imagine money/cryptocurrencies could do the same thing one day.

And of course, all three speakers have their own interests in mind when talking about Bitcoin. We shouldn’t forget about that—but their goals seem much cooler to me than going to space like Bezos just did.

Musk wants to shift the global economy toward using clean energies and uses his influence to achieve that—even if it loses him money in the short run. Wood wants to create a more dynamic world economy that grants access to everyone on the planet—even if that changes the monetary system and minimizes the power of American investors on a global stage.

And Dorsey blew my mind by saying, “All these distractions that we have to deal with on a daily basis take away from those bigger goals that affect every single person on this planet and increasingly so. You fix that foundational level, and everything above it improves in such a dramatic way. It’s going to be long-term, but my hope is definitely peace.”

Dorsey doesn’t want governments, corporations, and financial institutions to control the economy—he wants to give more power to the individual—and that can be achieved by a mindful use of technology.

I applaud Musk for using his influence to empower the renewable energy sector. I celebrate Cathie Wood for pointing out the social impact of cryptocurrencies on developing nations. And I just became a fanboy of Jack Dorsey who wants to revolutionize the way we make money online.

There are plenty of hurdles to overcome—but I feel this journey is far more promising than egotistical billionaires flying to space.