Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginClear (which provides water treatment solutions) is a thought leader in blockchain technology. In Eckelberry’s opinion cryptocurrency is creating new jobs, disrupting various industries and spurring new business ideas.
If particular interest to Eckelberry is how will cryptocurrency will benefit millennials going forward and why are millennials are especially drawn to cryptocurrency. Digital Journal spoke to Eckelberry about these issues.
Digital Journal: How big is cryptocurrency right now?
Riggs Eckelberry: We are in a washout stage, much like the period after April 2000, when the irrational globe.com-type startups were weeded out. I work a lot with retail accredited investors to fund my company, and I¹ve found that they were generally late to the party and they (or their kids0 got burned. So this is a contrarian period for crypto investing.
DJ: How big is cryptocurrency set to become over the next five years?
Eckelberry: It’s hard to overstate the disruptive power of crypto. The article I recently wrote from Forbes Council (attached) gives a concrete example of what would happen to an Uber, for example, in a crypto setting. Self-managing decentralized networks are a nightmare for conventional Silicon Valley startups.
DJ: Will this be so for all businesses?
Eckelberry: To different degrees. Anything that you can put in an app can be decentralized. But we¹re working on a heavy industry crypto. The rampup will be slower but in many ways, the disruption far greater, because of the sheer scale (for example, global water services will be a trillion dollar industry worldwide by 2020).
DJ: What advantages do cryptocurrencies provide for the economy?
Eckelberry: Cryptocurrencies are a continuation of the disintermediation trend begun with the Internet, but with money itself.
DJ: Are there any disadvantages?
Eckelberry: Security remains a major issue ¬ the cryptocurrencies may be safe, but the access points are not. We will continue to see major losses for some time to come. Also, the pump-and-dumps are very destructive. It¹s high time we got under the 34 Act regulatory umbrella as an industry.
DJ: Are market fluctuations putting people off buying cryptocurrency?
Eckelberry: Yes. Especially mainstream investors, who came in late and got hurt in 2018.
DJ: Is there are particular demographic that’s more open to the idea of cryptocurrency?
Eckelberry: The Snapchat generation, because they are completely OK with abrupt change.
DJ: Is consumer technology keeping up with cryptocurrency?
Eckelberry: Security remains a huge issue and even two-factor authentication can be defeated by SIM card exploits. Phones are just not a great platform.
