比特幣進(jìn)入主流需要借助技術(shù)革新
????今年10月31日,多次闖蕩創(chuàng)業(yè)之路的企業(yè)家杰里米?奧萊爾又宣布在波士頓成立Circle公司,致力于開發(fā)數(shù)字貨幣交易所需的工具,推出的工具可受理商家提供的數(shù)字貨幣。奧萊爾還公布,Circle已向風(fēng)投公司Accel Partners與General Catalyst募得A輪融資900萬(wàn)美元。這兩家投資公司還曾經(jīng)在2004年幫助奧萊爾創(chuàng)立網(wǎng)絡(luò)視頻平臺(tái)Brightcove。 ????《財(cái)富》記者借機(jī)采訪了奧萊爾,聊起他一手創(chuàng)建的新公司和數(shù)字貨幣更廣闊的未來(lái)。下面是經(jīng)過(guò)整理的《財(cái)富》對(duì)奧萊爾訪談實(shí)錄: ????《財(cái)富》:今年1月您卸下Brightcove公司首席執(zhí)行官一職,是否就是為了創(chuàng)辦這家新公司? ????奧萊爾:完全不是這個(gè)原因。其實(shí),我當(dāng)時(shí)根本沒(méi)有打算再開一家公司,只是覺(jué)得放松一下,或者做點(diǎn)投資會(huì)比較好。大概一年前,我就熟悉數(shù)字貨幣領(lǐng)域了,但真正很感興趣還是在辭掉Brightcove公司董事長(zhǎng)的職位之后,那時(shí)候我才有更多的時(shí)間考慮數(shù)字貨幣這個(gè)事物和它存在的問(wèn)題。所以,今年春天,我決定成立Circle公司。 ????《財(cái)富》:有一些初創(chuàng)企業(yè)也得到了風(fēng)投支持,他們同樣為商家提供受理比特幣的解決方案,您怎樣讓自己的產(chǎn)品有別于這些同行? ????奧萊爾:當(dāng)然,我們和其他產(chǎn)品的概念也有些相似之處。但如果回想下,我的整體印象是,這個(gè)市場(chǎng)還很年輕,某些方面就像互聯(lián)網(wǎng)還沒(méi)有誕生時(shí)那樣。所以,盡管有些商業(yè)項(xiàng)目和我們探索的同屬一個(gè)領(lǐng)域,但整個(gè)市場(chǎng)的空間依然很廣闊。我們也會(huì)采用不同的方式解決消費(fèi)者和商家出現(xiàn)的問(wèn)題,稍后我們會(huì)詳細(xì)點(diǎn)談?wù)勥@方面。 ????大家看數(shù)字貨幣,核心是看它的使用價(jià)值,比特幣尤其如此。它涉及一個(gè)即時(shí)轉(zhuǎn)款,而且?guī)缀跫磿r(shí)確認(rèn)和處理交易的系統(tǒng)。無(wú)論怎么使用這套系統(tǒng),用戶都無(wú)需為它承擔(dān)一分一毫的成本。要推動(dòng)主流群體采納這種系統(tǒng)就需要進(jìn)行技術(shù)革新,從商家的角度降低相關(guān)成本和遭遇欺詐的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。提供數(shù)字貨幣的時(shí)候,越來(lái)越多的企業(yè)將它包裝成為一種可以選擇的支付方式,因此消費(fèi)者會(huì)更有興趣選用。 |
????Serial entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire yesterday announced the launch of Circle, a Boston-based developer of digital currency acceptance tools for merchants. He also disclosed that the company has raised $9 million of Series A funding from Accel Partners and General Catalyst, both of whom helped Allaire create Brightcove (BCOV) back in 2004. ????So we took some time to speak with Allaire about the new company, and the broader future of digital currency. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation: ????FORTUNE: Is this new company why you stepped down as CEO of Brightcove back in January? ????ALLAIRE: No, not at all. I really didn't have any plans to start another company. I thought it would be nice to relax a bit or do some investing. But I had been familiar with the digital currency space for a year or so, and really after I stepped off into the chairman role I began to get very interested in the subject and problem space once I had more time to think about it, so in the spring I decided to start Circle." ????There are some other VC-backed startups working on Bitcoin acceptance solutions for merchants. How will your product differ? ????Certainly there are some conceptual similarities to other products out there. But, stepping back, my impression on the whole is that this is a very young market, like pre-Web in some ways. So while there are some business projects out there going after some of the same territory, the market is still very wide open. We're also taking a somewhat different approach to problems on the consumer and merchant side of things, which we'll be talking about more later. ????When you look at digital currency, and Bitcoin specifically, at the core is utility value. It's a system to instantly transmit money and to nearly instantly confirm and process those transactions. And you can do all of that at no cost. To drive mainstream adoption you need to take that technological innovation and apply to from a merchants perspective of reducing costs and fraud risks. As more and more businesses offer it as a payment option, that will drive more consumer interest. |