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Davos Economic Forum: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

At the Davos Economic Forum, there were people from a wide range of organizations representing some of the world's most impor
At the Davos Economic Forum, there were people from a wide range of organizations representing some of the world’s most important issues.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an American politician, has flooded the idea of a marginal tax rate of 70% for people who make over $10 million a year. Unsurprisingly, this idea has been laughed at rather publically by the billionaires at Davos Economic Forum. Of course, the billionaires are going to laugh at such an idea, but a 70% marginal tax rate would affect just that tiny group of elites mostly people going to the Davos Economic Forum.

A marginal tax rate is not a flat tax. There are a lot of people who view very strongly against the idea of taxing the ultra-rich more, but we have a situation right now where the oligarchs are robbing the world blind and laughing on our faces that they have convinced so many people about the idea of trickle-down economics. The system we have right now is broken. Its time for the rich to start paying their fair share when it comes to supporting society but they have not been doing that. People always say that a 70% tax rate would slow down the growth, but it would only slow the growth and power of the billionaires.

We have a situation right now where climate catastrophe is happening in real time and the people who can do something, won’t do something while it threatens their bottom line. Today’s titans of tech and finance want to solve the world’s problems as long as it doesn’t cost them anything and as long as these solutions don’t threaten their own wealth and power.

Cryptocurrency at Davos Economic Forum:

Ethereum along with the Consensus crew and Ripple both showed up at the Davos Economic Forum. At the Davos Economic Forum, there were people from a wide range of organizations representing some of the world’s most important issues. But the problem is that the people who can offer the solution to those are the same people sitting across the table from the people who want to make the changes happen but for some reason aren’t pushing enough actually to make these things happen. Consensus fits their vibe, they want to get in with these players, they want to do good things and connect with the people who can make those things happen. Of course, even Ripple wants oligarchs on board with XRP.

There is a conversation to be had for trying to change the system from within. Maybe Ethereum and Ripple are both correct when they go to places like the Davos Economic Forum, and they want to connect to the oligarchs and giant corporations. They see that this is the way we can change the future of the world not by working against but by working with these players. But the reality is that these entrenched powers are dangerous.

Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple representing the XRP ledger said he expects a widespread adoption of blockchain technology in about five years. A lot of other speakers at the Davos Economic Forum also noted that cryptocurrency is too small for regulation. Sir Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics at the Harvard University said that he has spoken to regulators and they said that there isn’t that much value going on in terms of transactions, a lot of it is speculation, it’s an exciting innovation, let’s let it roll out and see what happens. They are not necessarily planning to let it continue to roll after it does but there are planning to sort of see where the innovation goes.

People’s thoughts at the Davos Economic Forum:

At the Davos Economic Forum, some of the people were much more spectacle when it came down to it. Jeff Schumacher, the founder of Digital Ventures said that the bitcoin price will fall to zero. Schumacher is a top investor in the space and he said that basically, bitcoin has no value, it was useless as a currency because it’s not based on anything. He said that he is more interested in blockchain technology.

Bitcoin’s environmental impact basically they are saying that will ensure that this will not be the money of the future. Obviously that all depends upon how we actually mine bitcoin because not all energy is the same. Last year’s research showed that 80% of bitcoin mining is done by using renewable energy sources. Much of that renewable energy based in areas where it is not economically viable to power a big city so bitcoin mining helps them use energy that’s otherwise not being used. At the end of the day, Davos Economic Forum exists to defend the rich and elites. We do need to get the proof of work energy consumption down dramatically. It would help erase these bias arguments that we keep hearing about bitcoin being environmentally irresponsible.

On a panel with Brad Garlinghouse, it was said that XRP has a very small energy impact when we compare it to bitcoin. But interestingly, Brad Garlinghouse pointed out that he still owns bitcoin. Jamie Dimon also showed up at the Davos Economic Forum and said that ‘blockchain’ not ‘bitcoin’. Edith Yeung, a 500 startups partner was a bit more optimistic overall saying that many developing countries don’t even have credit cards, there is no particular infrastructure set up and that it is almost easier to see these blockchain enabled payments because of the leapfrog effect. Basically, what she’s saying is that we are going to see developing countries leapfrogging over the idea of existing banking infrastructures and go straight to cryptocurrency based payments.

Overall bitcoin and crypto have an amazing ability to totally kick start a new financial revolution on a massive scale, thinking about the free flow of money. If we can get financial tools in the hands of the people, they can start doing business. It’s not that the people in developing countries don’t want to do business, it’s that their feet and hands are tied but if we can untie them and release this financial energy into the world, it will be amazing

What are your thoughts over the viewpoints of the oligarchs on bitcoin and blockchain and the future of digital currencies? Tell us in the comments section below.

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