The Napster Effect: why Bitcoin really matters

I’m not going debate nor justify the volatility of Bitcoin and how it may or may not stabilize. I’m not going to discuss whether it will survive or whether it will be the defacto global currency. I’m not going to go into depth about how secure (or unsecure) Bitcoin is and whether or not it should be regulated.

What I am going to talk about is what I like to call the Napster Effect. Today, Napster isn’t the default for sharing, distributing or even purchasing music. However, what it did was far more powerful. It changed the psychology of consumers (early adopters) and the business of the music industry as a result.

I think this is why Bitcoin matters. It’s doing exactly the same thing. We were once told where, how and when we could consume music, just like we are told where, how and what we can do with our money.

So whether or not Bitcoin will be the default is irrelevant. What is more relevant is that we are re-thinking how we go about creating, storing and transferring value between each other. It’s that process that has changed the psychology of the people once again and the financial world will likely change drastically as a result.

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This article by Tyler Reed originally appeared on the Medium network and is republished with permission.