J.P. Morgan’s new ‘cryprocurrency’ lacks many of the features of traditionally cryptocurrency, which begs the question of how much, or little for that matter, education currently exists in the market.
The announcement quickly garnered the name JPM Coin and has been surrounded in differing opinions since many in the crypto world have pointed out that it is not really a cryptocurrency, while those in the mainstream claim it is “killing the Bitcoin dream”. The mainstream draw attention to the big name of J.P. Morgan, their large clientele base, and their investment capital. However, their coin most likely is not going to be decentralized, immutable, and censorship-resistant and many believe it is basically going to be a more efficient way of internal bookkeeping and money transfer on behalf of clients. One author eloquently described the situation by separating out the cryptography from the other attributes that comprise real cryptocurrency.
“The use of cryptography doesn’t make something a cryptocurrency. Cryptography is everywhere. You’ve already used some form of cryptography today if you looked at virtually anything online. You’re using it looking at this website. Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset. There are other types of digital assets, such as bank coins and utility tokens. JPM Coin is not a cryptocurrency. JPM Coin is a bank coin.”
This development draws parallels to the other non-cryptocurrencies such as Ripple, Petro, Iran’s potential new coin, and others. These coins deploy various attributes of distributed ledger technology, but also implement some form of centralized control. These coins can basically be consider forms of the current digital fiat money system that is simply better protected through cryptography.
Non-cryptocurrencies are an opportunity for education
The fact that these non-cryptocurrencies are still popular illustrates a lack of education in the wider cryptocurrency space since individuals are confused about what are the true attributes of cryptocurrency. This causes consumers to support efforts by J.P. Morgan and others since they believe it has the potential to be a more stable cryptocurrency, but in reality, these coins can have their supply manipulated much like the current money system. Additionally, they can shut down the account of actors they dislike, which is also much like the current system. However, there is still room for positivity since this can be a teaching moment for consumers to see what the current monetary and financial system is like and how real cryptocurrency can actually help them.
Currently, it is often hard for mainstream individuals to properly compare cryptocurrency to the current money system since it has been is use for most of their lives. However, the introduction of these non-cryptocurrencies fall between the two and can act as a bridge of reason and usability. It will be easier for many consumers to enter the cryptocurrency world through their own bank and/or government simply because it is not as foreign and scary. Then once they grow accustomed to these non-cryptocurrencies, it will be easier to point out how actual cryptocurrency like Dash, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and others actually improve upon non-cryptocurrencies and the old money system.
Dash committed to spreading appropriate knowledge
Dash has recognized that one of the biggest barriers to wide-scale adoption is consumer and merchant knowledge of why and how to use cryptocurrencies. Thus, the community has organized and funded numerous community outreach groups and advocacy groups to teach consumers and merchants how cryptocurrencies actually help them in everyday life by achieving monetary and financial independence from fiat money. While this occurs across the world, the biggest successes can be seen in developing countries, such as Venezuela and Colombia, that can more clearly see the benefits of cryptocurrency since their governments have mishandle the money supply, their country does not have good banking infrastructure, and/or they need censorship-resistant money.
