Blockchain founder talks about expansion: We try to remain neutral, but expansion is necessary

Blockchain.info is one of the earliest companies in the digital currency and blockchain industry to provide wallet and browser services. It has been a leader in the Onchain wallet field. In the past year, the number of Blockchain users has reached 13.5 million.

Blockchain founder Nicolas Cary is a loyal Bitcoin enthusiast. He majored in leadership studies and international political economy in college and graduated with a business degree. Before starting his own business, he traveled to India to teach English and conduct poverty alleviation assessments in pioneering areas. Nic is a serial entrepreneur. Before co-founding Blockchain, he was also the co-founder of PipelingDeal. In 2013, he co-founded Blockchain.

Recently, Nicolas conducted an AMA on 8btc, discussing with Chinese community users about Bitcoin expansion and their views on the future development of Bitcoin. The following is a record of the main questions:

I noticed that you clarified your attitude towards Bitcoin expansion on Weibo before, and you did not support SW. So what is Blockchain’s specific attitude towards Bitcoin expansion?

Nicolas: We decided to stay as neutral as possible, but we feel that scaling needs to happen. When the mempool was backed up, our users were complaining about how slow confirmations were. This is a big problem because the vast majority of Bitcoin users right now don't even know there's congestion on the network, they don't care about Core or Unlimited. They just want a reliable tool to transfer money to their family and friends. We need to keep Bitcoin competitive. I do think that possible alternative protocols may start to gain more market share - if they prove to be more useful. This is a shame for Bitcoin because more and more people are using Bitcoin. Bitcoin is becoming more and more valuable, it's network effect money.

In recent times, the underlying technology updates of Bitcoin have caused a lot of discussion, such as SW and BU. What do you think about the difficulties faced by Bitcoin technology updates?

Nicolas: If you follow Bitcoin even occasionally, there is always some drama going on in the industry. 2011, 2012, 2013, every year. The way to unite our community is not to divide. We want Bitcoin to be used by more people, we want it to be more reliable, and we want it to be affordable for everyone. These are not mutually exclusive goals, but there are some technical trade-offs that make all changes somewhat contentious. Ultimately, once a proposal is accepted by the majority, then I expect it will be adopted.

Bitcoin has entered the mainstream vision in China. What conditions or support do you think are needed to make it more accessible to the public? Or is it too early to ask this question now?

Nicolas: It’s never too early to talk about this :) Bitcoin had a bad branding problem in the first few years. Many regular people only heard about it in negative ways for the first time. Our industry and community have come a long way. In my opinion, a good way to show people the real power of Bitcoin is to encourage them to create a Bitcoin wallet and then send them a little bit of coins. Usually, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So instead of trying to convince anyone to buy Bitcoin because it might be more valuable in the future (even though I believe that), I think it’s better to explain why it’s so useful. This simple demonstration starts to get people excited by showing how new users can be their own bank and transact with whoever they want. Ultimately we have to explain why Bitcoin is the better way to transact.

It is a big problem to judge the current number of Bitcoin users. But Blockchain is the most successful Bitcoin wallet, so you should have a say in this issue. Can you roughly predict the current number of Bitcoin users (not wallets)?

Nicolas: The comprehensive answer to this question is the report that was just released by the Cambridge University Center for Alternative Finance. The information they collected from the Bitcoin ecosystem - as of 2017, there are about 87 million active users.

https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/

What do you think about Bitcoin being defined as counterfeit currency in China?

Nicolas: Money has a long history and people have tried many different types, including pears, gold and paper. Bitcoin is digital money for the internet age. It has value because it is both scarce and useful. Some people use Bitcoin because they think it is a good store of value (in fact, Bitcoin has been the best performing currency 4 out of the past 5 years) - others use Bitcoin because it is a fast way to transact with anyone else in the world. It is very convenient for making payments. In fact, all money is based on people's perceptions and the properties of money. Bitcoin has exactly the same properties as other forms of money, including being purely digital, but with a limited supply, like gold, and anyone in the world can use it.

Click to view the full AMA: http://8btc.com/thread-53391-1-1.html