Welcome to the World Crypto Con Spotlight series. Today’s guest: Joël Valenzuela.
World Crypto Con
(WCC) is a platform for industry leaders to share their knowledge of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, as well as introduce their projects to the world. WCC welcomes both experts and novices to attend; there’s something for everyone.
Our World Crypto Con Spotlight series will be focusing on moments from the conference, speaking to headliners about their experience with WCC.
Thanks to World Crypto Con, we at had the pleasure of interviewing , former writer for Cointelegraph and current news editor and public outreach director for Dash Force.
Today, Joël will be giving you a sneak peek at his WCC talk and telling us a little more about why Dash as a payment system is important.
World Crypto Con Spotlight: Joël Valenzuela
Q: Joel, you are a renowned crypto writer for Cointelegraph, so you’ve seen every aspect of the crypto-world. What is it about Dash that draws you?
A: What drew me to bitcoin was better, peer-to-peer digital money that anyone could easily use. Dash is currently the best project on the market for that purpose. It has low fees, instant confirmations, private transactions, and a hard focus on being used across the whole world as money.
Q: Tell me about Dash’s influence in Venezuela (or other countries) and how it should inspire other crypto companies to do the same?
A: Dash has turned Venezuela into the world’s first place where you can spend cryptocurrency on just about anything. This is a major, historic achievement that was made possible by a self-funding decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) backing grassroots efforts on the ground by Venezuelans who were prepared to work hard to save their country’s economy.
Q: How has Dash taken steps to become accessible as day-to-day money in Venezuela or elsewhere?
A: First, Dash created a currency that simply worked, with low fees and ease of use. Second, it funded grassroots adoption efforts in the country. And finally, it focused on results in getting Dash used as a currency, rather than simply chasing news headlines.
Q: Is Dash working in Venezuela because its economy is currently suffering badly? Do you think an economy needs to be in such a bad way before we see cryptos take effect at a mainstream level?
A: A superior product should work anywhere in the world, but it’s especially easy to see why Dash is better than fiat currency in a country where the value of the money is plunging rapidly. However, in some ways, stable economies can be easier for cryptocurrency adoption since people and businesses are in a better position to take risks. So yes, Dash is doing great in Venezuela in part because of the country’s economic issues, but that isn’t necessarily a precondition for adoption.
Q: In this way, do you think cryptos will ever truly replace fiat currencies?
A: Absolutely. People are always looking for better, more reliable, and more efficient ways of storing and transferring the value generated from their hard work. Just as barter evolved into basic currency, coins, precious metals, paper money, and electronic banking, there’s no reason to believe that there won’t be a next step to the global monetary evolution.
Q: If you had to choose one cryptocurrency to replace all your own money with, what would it be?
A: This isn’t a hypothetical. I closed my bank account and live all on Dash. That’s 100% of my income, and what I spend to live on. It’s a challenge sometimes, but it’s getting easier every month. This is also probably the only cryptocurrency I could do this with. I originally started living off of bitcoin but had to stop when the fees became too high and adoption suffered.
Q: Are you a crypto bull or a bear?
A: I’m absolutely a crypto bull long-term, though if you picked a current top-100 project at random, I would be very bearish about most of them. I believe this space is still very new, and most coins will likely not last. Each passing year eliminates more from the top few, and only the best survive.
Q: What excites you the most about this industry?
A: Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have massive potential to decentralize virtually any industry. The implications for human freedom and progress are massive. I’ve always wanted to work in improving the human condition, and being able to do this for a living is amazing.
Q: If you had only one article left to write ever, what would your last subject be on and why?
A: I would write a piece on why decentralized digital money matters, what constitutes true cryptocurrency, and a step-by-step manual on how, in practical and specific terms, to get it adopted as the major form of payment worldwide. This is how I think I can do my best contribution to the world in a work that can be accessed over and over as a reference for those seeking to change the world.
Q: What are you most excited about for World Crypto Con?
A: I’m most excited about getting to update the world on what Dash has achieved so far. It’s extremely impressive but flies under the radar of the crypto mainstream sometimes. I always enjoy a good opportunity to blow some people’s minds.
Thanks again to World Crypto Con for the opportunity and to Joël Valenzuela for taking the time to speak with us.
Joël Valenzuela will be a panelist at ‘Banking the Unbanked’ on November 2nd.
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Published at Wed, 31 Oct 2018 17:41:08 +0000