Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk: Bitcoin is already a currency, there is no need to debate. | by Jayden Levitt | March 2023
It makes more sense as we become more digital that things like Bitcoin become a currency.
Gary Vaynerchuk is a salt-of-the-earth entrepreneur.
He is a Russian immigrant.
Who as a child would take plants from the neighbours’ gardens and then sell them back to the same neighbours.
Oddly, he always swallows the gum and never washes his hands after going to the toilet because he says it makes you soft.
Garyvee, as he is affectionately known, has a fascinating story of how he arrived in America at the age of three.
Russia was hardcore and had strict rules for people leaving the country, especially Jews.
A group of Soviet Jews attempted to hijack a civilian plane to escape the country and immigrate to Israel in 1970. Three men and a woman boarded a domestic flight. Once the plane was in the air, they produced weapons and demanded that the plane be flown to Sweden, which had a reputation for being sympathetic to refugees.
The Russian police captured the people who hijacked the plane, and because of the incident, the Russian government made it more difficult for Jews to leave the country and punished people who spoke out against the government. However, the event caused people all over the world to support the idea of Jews being allowed to leave Russia, putting significant international pressure on the government to ease immigration.
The relaxation of immigration laws allowed Garyvee and his family to flee the country and have the lives they have today.
The rich tradition of storytelling and folk wisdom in Russian culture often leads to the use of analogies to convey complex ideas, which may be why Gary Vaynerchuk, whose upbringing is unknown to me, uses metaphors and historical references brilliantly.
Vaynerchuk’s entrepreneurial spirit developed in America from successfully operating a lemonade stand franchise at the age of seven to his early teens selling baseball cards and hiding $4,000 a week under his bed.
His success today as a serial entrepreneur is undeniable, founding several companies valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yet his most recognized skill is understanding human behavior and identifying trends before they happen.
One of his early insights was Blockchain technology, which Vaynerchuck believes is much bigger than people realize.
He believes that you have to understand that Blockchain technology can rule America, China and Russia, given the trustless nature of peer-to-peer transactions.
When a relatively hostile crowd of Bitcoin maximalists asked if he had invested in Blockchain technology or Bitcoin, he replied.
Gary Vaynerchuk – Source
“I bought Bitcoin in 2014.
I need you all to eat it for a moment.
I love showing Coinbase to people; they are like Fuck.
I put in $25,000 (estimated price was $300).
Blockchain as a technology is a complete foregone conclusion. The currencies built on top of it still have huge volatility for anyone who has made a million dollars. Some people have been wrecked”.
Vaynerchuk says he receives emails daily from people who have bought Bitcoin, maxed out their credit cards and are in deep depression and sadness.
So he wants people to understand that there is tremendous volatility when we’re in these areas, and it’s “very early.”
Gary Vaynerchuck – Source
“The lack of patience, proof that you were right, or the need to make $10 million or whatever goes through your head is your vulnerability.
Our lack of patience is our collective vulnerability. You have to change your path from the quick score and get out of this gold rush mentality to like Blockchain technology and believe in decentralization.”
Vaynerchuck says citizens have already adopted Bitcoin as a currency, while governments have been slow to react or haven’t made their intentions public.
He says governments won’t just let an asset class grow under their noses, so he believes Bitcoin will have no middleman. It will either skyrocket to become the 12th sector of the S&P500 or be heavily taxed and suppressed by governments.
Vaynerchuck believes Bitcoin has already happened and is being adopted as a currency by a significantly growing population, mainly because people create their ecosystems of what is valuable.
Gary Vaynerchuck – Source
“Bitcoin is much further along than most things that have come before it as an accepted currency.
I don’t get to say, and neither do most people, what should and shouldn’t be accepted as value.
If enough people believe in it, then it will be.
I always remind people that some people lived in the world before gold meant anything. Gold was a created ecosystem.
If so, f*ck Gold, F*ck Bitcoin, what about Tulips?
Garyvee is a serial investor with an unpleasant strike rate for success.
He sees round corners.
His first three investments ever were Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. While it’s easy to see these as big companies now, he made significant investments at a time when people were scratching their heads and wondering how social media could even make money.
That’s why I sit up and listen when he gives his take on things, and he’s often accurate because he understands human behavior on a level I’ve never seen before.
He acknowledges the volatility of Bitcoin as a currency, but sees it as part of the early stages of a technological shift because the underlying blockchain technology is profound.
Garyvee says governments are still debating whether Bitcoin should have recognizable value when the people have already made up their minds.
The human race will continue to evolve.
As we become more digital, Bitcoin’s use as a currency will become more widespread.
