In an exclusive interview for Crypto news, William Quigleyco-founder and CEO of decentralized blockchain WAX and co-founder USDT issuer Chainshared his insights on the future of the crypto and blockchain industry amid recent challenges.
Quigley, who has more than 30 years of experience in technology and finance, remains optimistic about the sector’s recovery, stressing the need for patience as the industry finds its footing again.
Recent struggles and short-term memory
The crypto sector faced several obstacles in 2022 and 2023, including market crashes, company collapses, scandals and regulatory oversight.
However, Quigley believes that recovery is possible because of a very human reason: human short-term memory.
He stated that global market participants tend to quickly forget shocking news and events, which could play a significant role in the recovery of the industry.
Quigley compared the current crypto landscape to the early days of the Internet bubble.
From 1995 to 2000, he witnessed a craze that was “1000 times bigger than what crypto was in 2021.”
According to Quigley, it was “quite crazy” how people believed that not being connected to the Internet would spell doom for them.
However, a series of events, including the collapse of the Internet bubble, the collapse of Telecom, 9/11, and financial fraud, led to a significant loss of interest in Internet-related ventures.
“And I tell a lot of younger people something that I think they kind of don’t believe me, but it’s the truth. I can prove to you that this is true. In 2001, 2002 and 2003, the only area on the planet that Wall Street venture capitalists thought was a toxic wasteland was any business connected to something called the Internet.”
However, as companies like Facebook and YouTube emerged and the landscape gradually changed, venture capitalists returned their attention to the Internet in late 2010.
Look ahead with confidence
Despite the setbacks experienced by the crypto and blockchain industry, Quigley argues that these challenges are relatively minor compared to the internet’s past struggles.
He remains confident in the sector’s ability to recover and develop over time, urging patience and optimism as the industry navigates the current headwinds.
As the interview ended, it became clear that Quigley’s extensive experience and knowledge lends credence to his optimistic outlook.
While it is critical to acknowledge the obstacles facing the crypto and blockchain sector, the industry’s potential for resurgence should not be underestimated.
Advice from the internet to blockchain: Hurry up
Quigley noted the saying, “Never let a crisis fail.” When FTX stock market collapsed, causing significant damage to its users, presented the perfect opportunity for federal groups in the United States to claim, “Oh, look, this is what happens when it’s not regulated.”
Consequently, they began to act aggressively.
Now Securities Commission (SEC) effectively prohibited third parties from marketing staking services to the US retail community.
Quigley expressed his disagreement with this approach, saying, “I think it’s such a wrong idea.”
Ethereum Staking and the Authorized Investor Problem
Quigley argued that investing in Ethereum is complicated, but the key is to encourage people to deploy their assets in a way that strengthens the network. Since the average person often can’t do this themselves, it would make sense for an aggregator to do it for them for a nominal fee.
The problem lies in the fact that people with a lot of ETH can invest on their own, as well as the “big institutional guys” who are registered with government agencies.
However, in the United States, poor and modestly wealthy people are “barred from participating in profitable enterprise.”
Quigley highlighted the concept of the ‘authorized investor’ which allows only wealthy individuals to participate in better investments.
“Literally, it’s the law. As if only rich people are allowed to participate in these attractive investments.”
Lessons from the Internet and the dangers of new technologies
Quigley noted that the example of the Internet is very instructive. He explained that during the early days of the Internet, powerful business and government interests were ignorant, apathetic and disinterested.
They did not foresee the huge impact that online entities would have on various industries.
Quigley added, “I look at it now and I think if all these business interests knew what the Internet would allow others to do, the Internet would either be banned or immediately treated as a regulated communications industry, like cable companies.”
Companies have since learned from the music, newspaper and retail industries. A generation of capitalists now sees new technologies as dangerous.
Quigley said, “When you see a new technology, the first thing you do is go to the government and ban it.”
Importance of stablecoins and NFTs
Quigley believes that one of the great inventions of the 21st century is the tokenization of fiat, with stablecoins being “so spectacularly valuable [and] there should be 1,000.”
He emphasized the importance of speed in the industry, using the example of Uber. If Uber had started slower, it would have ceased to exist.
“The transportation industry has been too slow to identify the effects of Uber. And Uber only survived because people in the United States began to truly see the value of it. But if it had started a little slower, Uber would have ceased to exist regulated.”
To ensure the success of the blockchain industry, Quigley recommends two things:
- to ensure that the industry takes off as quickly as possible and that as many people as possible enjoy its benefits
- form a strong core movement.
“The ability, the flexibility you give a new class of entrepreneurs when they’ve introduced a new platform is incredible when they get it up and running quickly and people appreciate it.”
Quigley said. “Once that happens, it’s extremely difficult for tyrants and governments to shut it down.”
But there’s a caveat when it comes to blockchain: when the technology is introduced more slowly, when it’s harder for people to understand and use it, bad actors have more time to kill it. This is what blockchain struggles with because it is a very abstract concept.
This is where irreplaceable tokens come into play.
Quigley argued that the best thing to happen to blockchain from a mass market standpoint was non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Thanks to the “pretty pictures”, more people could understand and use it.
However, this has come with a few downsides, such as the issue of NFT’s impact on the climate and people assuming that blockchains are only useful for pretty pictures.
Adoption is in progress.
Thematic investments
Quigley describes himself as a “thematic investor” who looks at either a market or a technology platform and how it can be specifically used. We’re at a point in blockchain where it’s not a good idea to be a general investor in blockchain, and it’s better to go “narrow,” he argued.
Some of the areas he is particularly interested in are infrastructure services (both from a demand and seamless access perspective), as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) and “one of the three legs of DeFi” – stablecoin.
Quigley goes even further and focuses on ways to distribute labor for areas essential to the tech world, saying that what fundamentally made bitcoin so powerful is this “wonderful way to distribute labor by compensating people in a decentralized way to support the platform. “
Therefore he said,
“I’d rather be sustained by a decentralized workforce than a giant corporation that has all kinds of weird political views that it wants to impose on everyone else.”
Quigley concluded that the best way to support a community is to highlight a particular aspect or ability and “encourage people to use their imagination:.
When we simply tell people what to do, we rob them of the opportunity to think deeply about the topic and come up with their own ideas or solutions.
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