In a recent podcast, billionaire entrepreneur, investor, Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban talked about why he is optimistic about cryptocurrencies in general and DeFi in particular, and why he is still skeptical about Bitcoin. as a currency.
Cuban remained adamant that Bitcoin is not as much a currency as a store of value: "At the moment, I am not convinced that Bitcoin will become a currency," he said. "What has really changed is that people have begun to recognize that this is just a store of value."
Cuban: a modern Nostradamus
Cuban made several predictions that revealed his optimism about the future of the blockchain. He said governments around the world can create their own digital currencies because they are cheaper: “We lose money for every penny and nickel minted. There are so many costs and stupidity associated with how we've always done things, ”plus the procedures are not safe, he added.
He predicted that as governments get more out of digital currencies, they may decide to sell a percentage of their gold holdings and pour their earnings into BTC or ETH. “A lot is based on trust: what do you trust? Who do you trust? How do you trust? Bitcoiners rightly trust the scarcity of the currency. And that's okay. But a lot of basic trust is also needed. You have to trust the electricity tariffs, the availability, the fact that no one can get 51% of the computing power ".
An analogy made during the interview compares the rise of the blockchain with that of the Internet. In the beginning there were limited applications and early adopters before the whole issue became ubiquitous. Cuban sees smart contracts as the pivotal moment when cryptocurrencies "just exploded" and pose a serious threat to the banking system. For this reason, he said "Ethereum has an edge over Bitcoin in approaching ordinary people" - here the quotations in real time. But what are smart contracts?
Get “smart” with Ethereum
Cuban's love of decentralized finance (DeFi) goes hand in hand with his love of Ethereum, a blockchain created to support smart contracts. DeFi services have built an entire financial infrastructure on top of the blockchain, using smart contracts (automated blockchain contracts) to create protocols that replace existing financial services in ways that, thanks to blockchain, are unprecedentedly transparent and interoperable.
Cuban said: “Smart contracts are real and remind me of the early days of the Internet. With just basic HTML and JavaScript, you could do a lot of business. It is becoming a frictionless banking system. It is easier to borrow in seconds. If you have $ 200 in Ether or Bitcoin that you want to turn into wrapped bitcoin, and then you want to borrow $ 100 at 2,3%, it takes you fifteen seconds. It's incredible. This is really starting to upset the banking sector ”.
