The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently surveyed its readers on what they thought of Bitcoin. The survey came after a WSJ MoneyBeat poll revealed that 83 % of respondents believed “there is a future for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.”
Respondents from all over the world chimed in for the survey, and here are some of their responses:
“Bitcoin is cheaper, faster and more secure than other transaction systems, especially for (global) economic activity on the Internet. It will enable businesses and products that cannot exist with current systems. Incidentally, the expectation that a currency will be usable for transactions is also the only thing 'backing' fiat currencies such as USD.”
Bangor, Wales
“Bitcoin is one of the most important innovations of our generation—and comparable in impact to railroads, automobiles, telephony, Internet, etc., if not more.”
Chicago
“Four billion global citizens will finally have modern financial services.”
San Francisco
“Anything that is independent of any control is highly unsustainable. This currency is extremely volatile and thus not fit to be used as a currency in day-to-day business.”
Chicago
“More efficient problem-solutions always displace less efficient solutions in human affairs. Common sense tells you that the ability to transfer value globally, at will, for virtually no cost and as frictionlessly as posting an email, is an infinitely better solution than SWIFT or Western Union or credit card. Current payment systems compared with bitcoin are snail mail compared with email.”
South Africa
“Having read the original white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, I feel that the creation of bitcoin, in particular an open platform ripe for permissionless innovation, could foster incredible innovation.”
Kentucky
“Every time I read criticisms of Bitcoin, I think it might fail. Then I use it to buy lunch (using BitPay on TakeAway.com). And it works so quickly, so flawlessly, I know this or something like it is the future.”
Amsterdam
“They only have a future insofar as they do something genuinely useful. In the financial world, that might be instant clearing and settlement of international payments. I can see no retail use for cryptocurrencies simply because they are too volatile and do not really function as money.”
Chicago
“The currency is not backed by any central government and therefore is extremely unstable. Bitcoin may be an easy sell in countries that have unstable currencies and governments, but convincing Westerners to use it will be very difficult.”
Vancouver
“The ability to transfer money instantaneously, globally in a fraction of a second without the need (and rent-seeking) of a third party is such an improvement over the current system. I believe market forces will embrace a more efficient system based on a cryptocurrency.”
Sarasota, Fla.
“Cryptocurrency is an over-engineered solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Ottawa
“Much in the same way that ARPANET preceded the Internet, cryptocurrency is preceding the wider use of block chains. We’re only now just scratching the surface of what these data structures can do.”
London
Writers at the Wall Street Journal have covered cryptocurrency-related topics several times, from merchant adoption news to praise for legislation, payment anonymity benefits to whether to capitalize the “b” in Bitcoin. While the opinions of WSJ writers clearly differ from one another, it would appear that there's a uniting trend of Bitcoin technology approval among their readers.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones: