The video opens with a bulky guy lying on top of a pile of dollar bill bundles.
Smiling, he runs his left thumb through bills in a bundle he has on his
right hand and waves it.
A presenter cuts in. With different variations of the Bitcoin logo and
other forms of relevant graphics running in the background, the
presenter takes the viewers through what money has been in the past.
===
Finally, he explains why Bitcoin is a powerful idea in this time and
era. He points out its advantages over conventional money such as lower
cost when doing cross-border remittance, “self-sustaining, coded to
prevent inflation and encrypted to prevent anyone from disrupting its
course.”
Of course, the presenter, early in the clip, asks that seemingly common
rhetorical question in all Bitcoin videos; “What is Bitcoin.” He goes
ahead to give the usual definition, “Bitcoin is decentralized digital
……. . “ He even gives a short description of how Bitcoins mining
happens.
The video does not end before there is a mention of Satoshi Nakamoto,
the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin.
Sounds like this bitcoin video is no different from all the rest you
have watched online this far. If you think so, try again. There is
something that makes this one special. However, it is not new
information it shares, but rather who made and uploaded it.
Google Developers is a platform that supports developers and engineers
working on products and solutions that are used within or alongside the
Google ecosystem. In essence, it is an arm of Google, a giant
multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related
services and products.
If Google points out a technology many will look
Needless to say, Google is the kind of company that when it mentions a
technology in the offing, million are bound to take note. This video is,
therefore, a huge endorsement for Bitcoin even if it was not meant to
be.
Through it, millions around the globe who have never heard about the
cryptocurrency are likely to learn about it for the first time. For a
start, Google Developers has about 0.8 million YouTube subscribers, 1.58
million followers on Twitter and over 10,000 Facebook likes. And they
have shared the video on all these platforms.
But that is not even the juicier part for Bitcoin. That should be the
credibility it gives to the cryptocurrencies. Indeed, it is likely to
convince those who have always wondered whether Bitcoin is a real and
disruptive technology or just another Ponzi scheme.
That is the backdrop on which Google Developers uploaded the Bitcoin
video on Tuesday 16th February 2015. And the action has exhilarated and
Infuriated in equal measures, going by the reactions expressed in
various chat and social media forums.
As expected many within the Bitcoin community have welcomed the step
taken by Google Developers. Perhaps it is not lost on Bitcoin users that
even in the time when major financial institutions and technology
companies are embracing the Blockchain, the decentralized ledger
underpinning Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin hardly gets
praise piled on it by a mainstream technology company of Google’s
stature.
“Google is finally starting to pay attention. It would be out of this
world awesome if Android N is built to hold a small amount of bitcoin to
use for micropayments for wifi and data,” one redditor has
posted,
“I think it might take Google another year or two to fully embrace
bitcoin, but when they do it will be quite bullish.”
“The lack of relevant Bitcoin interest and recognition by Apple and
Google reminds me of the lack of internet recognition by Microsoft until
its competitors were well underway. I think the outcomes may be similar
too,” another redditor has observed, “Bitcoin should be getting much of
their attention. They could be racing forward with it instead of
watching things happen from the sidelines.”
#bitcoin 101 or “The revolution of crypto currency” – All in under 4 mins: https://t.co/oVgXrK9XzU pic.twitter.com/4H5ieA21bR
— Google Developers (@googledevs) February 16, 2016
The disappointed and the infuriated
Others within the Bitcoin community have, however, expressed
disappointment with a few aspects of the video. For instance, some have
pointed out that regardless the fact that the video is about Bitcoin,
the word ‘Bitcoin’ is missing from its title; The Zen of Monetization:
The Revolution of Crypto Currency.
There is also the issue of when the video could have been created. A lot
of information, especially on the side of graphics, appears to have been
overtaken by time. Some have concluded that the video was created some
years back and shelved only to be uploaded now.
For instance, at one point in the video, the price of Bitcoin is
indicated to be $258, which is far away from the current Bitcoin price
ranges. Also, the presenter announces a list of startups that are
pushing the technology forward. In there, Buttercoin, a startup that is
no longer in existence, is included. Even the infamous Mt Gox, an
exchange that went under with close to 800,000 bitcoins belonging to its
customers, is also on the list.
However, it is easy to explain this outdated content in the video and
rule them out as indicators of the time when the video was shot. The
developers of the video could simply have picked old graphics.
On the other hand, there are those who seem to have been offended by
Google appearing to endorse Bitcoin. One of those in this group includes
Jorge Stolfi, who introduces
himself on Twitter as Computer Science professor at the State University
of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.
“It has been pointed out that this video is more than two years old. Is
Google still supporting this ‘non-deliberate Ponzi’?” He asked in one
tweet.
When challenged by another Twitter user to explain how Bitcoin is a
Ponzi scheme, he tweeted back, “Unlike gold or coffee, bitcoin has no
utilitarian demand; and its demand as a currency is small, and has no
future.”
With the reactions and debate on the age of the video aside, it must be
acknowledged as something of a turning point for a subsidiary of a
mainstream technology company like Google to develop and upload a video
that basically says nothing negative about Bitcoin.
Image courtesy of
Pixabay
