"Leapfrog Effect" Driving Rapid Adoption and New
Disruptive Models
By Marc Dresner, Senior Editor, IIR
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are
heading.”
– Lao Tzu
One of my
favorite thinkers on the subject of change—author and inventor Ray Kurzweil—posits that the pace of technological change accelerates exponentially.
According
to Kurzweil, we have reached the point where the technologies that
move our world—it may not be on your radar yet, but it’s already out
there—radically change every six months, and that rate will only
increase.
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| Rik Willard |
I mention
this because I was reminded of it in a recent podcast interview I conducted
with Rik Willard, a leading cryptocurrencies expert, who argues that
alternative currencies are rapidly approaching an inflection point in emerging
markets with dramatic implications for the rest of the world.
Willard,
the CEO of MintCombine—a “think tank and product lab delivering blockchain
solutions for brands and causes”—described what’s happening in markets in
Africa, Southeast Asia and South America as defining moments in a global currency
revolution.
“The way these emerging
markets use new currencies will have a global influence that has never been
seen in modern accounting.”
“The way these emerging markets use new currencies
will define what the future looks like and have a global market influence that
has never been seen in modern accounting,” Willard told me.
He
emphasized that the lack of both infrastructure and entrenched institutional
interests is producing a “leapfrog” effect in emerging markets, enabling swift
adoption of cryptocurrencies and driving new models that encumbered first-world
economies will have to catch up with.
For
example, he pointed out that it took just six months to get BitPesa up and
running in Kenya, where almost 90% of the population is unbanked and about 80%
have cell phones.
For
venerable, traditional financial services providers like Western Union these types of developments could be category killers, he warned.
“Rules are being rewritten
right now.”
“Rules
are being rewritten right now,” said Willard.
“You have
to put away your old thinking and look at what’s happening around the world or
you will quickly find yourself three or four steps behind in a very, very fast
race,” he added.
Willard
predicts there won’t be one single world currency—say Bitcoin—but a
plethora of alternative currencies, perhaps thousands, based on everything from
basketing of commodities in mineral-rich nations to regional, municipal,
industrial and even corporate coins.
“You have
Overstock.com playing with the idea with Counterparty right now of having their
own currency. Not just accepting Bitcoin. That was the first phase. They are
actually trying to decide if they have enough equity that they can spread
around in a currency,” Willard noted.
“It’s a
time of flux and that has always presented opportunities for people in
finance,” he added.
In this
podcast for On Payments—the All Payments Expo (APEX) interview
series—Rik Willard discusses how development of cryptocurrencies in emerging
markets is shaping up to disrupt the status quo and what the future of
alternative currencies may look like.
Editor’s
note: Rik Willard will be a featured speaker at APEX 2015—the All Payments
Expo—taking place February 23-25 in Las Vegas.
For an agenda or to register for APEX, please visit www.allpaymentsexpo.com.
Ps. REGISTER
and SAVE $100 with promo code XU2848BLOG
ABOUT THE AUTHOR / INTERVIEWER Marc Dresner is IIR USA’s sr. editor and special communication project lead. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the market and consumer research industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.
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