Interview Jack Dorsey: “cryptocurrencies will change society”

Jack Dorsey is known to all as a co-founder and CEO of Twitter and, in an engaging interview conducted by Lex Fridman, he spoke on numerous topics related to innovation and crypto.

Starting with Square, a company that is demonstrating great capabilities in the payment industry, Jack explains the dynamics that led him to support the need to remove barriers to access to the financial system. 

“With Square we cannot work as an internet company, to open a new market we must always relate to a local bank.

A digital currency like Bitcoin could launch our services globally by limiting frictions and regulatory asymmetry problems”.

When asked how he was able to solve Square’s scalability problems safely, with a Machiavellian approach, to say the least, the American entrepreneur with 4 billion dollars’ worth of assets underlines his attitude of “as long as it works”.

The approach to the problems, denoted by his hacker training, has allowed him to refine his ability to observe the phenomena without prejudice and from all possible points of view without in any way limiting the methods of resolution.

He owes a lot to the open-source world, “everything I learned in engineering and programming”, he says, “I learned thanks to the community“. 

From there to talking about Bitcoin the transition was short and during the interview, Dorsey reiterates a concept dear to him:

“The Internet needs its own currency and so, I believe in Bitcoin”.

Problems of the contemporary financial system according to Jack Dorsey

Square sees some key issues in the global finance and payments industry.

• Risk models;
• Entry barriers;
• Accessibility;
• Trust.

The solution to these issues must start with a radical change in the model. Currently, the financial system requires a person to be accredited in an institution in order to be able to transact. 

This model starts from the assumption that a person has no credit and then manages to gain it. 

Changing attitudes means starting by trusting individuals and then verifying that the way in which they transact is in line with the parameters in order to ensure that trust remains unchanged.

“Cryptocurrencies are the answer to the need for a more inclusive and participatory economy”.

The most interesting thing for Dorsey remains the free aspect of this new paradigm, nobody dictates a direction, and therefore nobody can block it. 

The organic nature of the ecosystem determines its success, the model evolves and adapts. In a particularly inspired moment he also states:

“Bitcoin whitepaper is poetry”.

The debate has also reached a more philosophical level, certainly the technologies that are emerging will lead to a radical change in society. 

Man and his way of thinking, interacting and relating also depends on the tools he is using. This is why change is not a question of will but of inevitability.