The co-founder of Ethereum explains what you need to know before buying Crypto

ConsenSys Founder, Joseph Lubin (left) and ConsenSys Marketing Manager, Amanda Gutterman Steve Jennings / Getty Images for TechCrunch

For those considering investing in cryptocurrencies, the first thing to know is that those working at the epicenter of the blockchain do not care much about the monetary value of Bitcoin and other digital tokens.

That was the general feeling that resonated among the blockchain insiders at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco last week.

A prominent member of this group is Joseph Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum, the second largest capitalization of cryptocurrency per market today. Lubin is the CEO of ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based software company specializing in creating applications based on the Ethereum platform. but the price of the Ethereum token – as well as other digital currencies – is not something he worries a lot about.

"We try not to focus too much on the price of chips and speculation," Lubin told Observer last week in San Francisco. "For the most part, these tokens relate to supply and demand, and their use. Demand can be exacerbated if there are many speculators in the ecosystem, which we see every year, in my opinion.

From a technical point of view, cryptocurrency is only one of the many applications built on the blockchain. Bitcoin was the first application based on the blockchain to spark general interest, paving the way for many others to follow. In this regard, Lubin said the growing interest in blockchain technology was partly due to cyclical crypto price booms. "Investor enthusiasm drives up pricesHigher prices bring more value to the chain of blocks ecosystem, in the form of money, entrepreneurial and technical talent, and consumers, "he said.

According to a popular definition, Blockchain is a decentralized digital registry that records transactions, such as payment with cryptocurrencies. However, most people without relevant technical knowledge find the concept difficult to grasp.

The good news, according to Lubin and his colleagues, is that everything is fine.

"Today, almost everyone uses everyday Internet-based products, but not everyone understands how computers and TCP / IP protocols work. The blockchain is similar in this way. By the time blockchain applications have fully penetrated our lives, people will understand it, "said Amanda. Gutterman, marketing manager of ConsenSys, explained to Observer.

Some of these applications have already reached consumers. For example, earlier this year, ConsenSys launched a multimedia application called Civil for the purpose of decentralizing journalism. Unlike a traditional news site where every article is stored on a centralized server, Civil saves every news item on an Ethereum network so that the text can never be deleted by one party.

The idea that it would be possible for a person who does not like what is written about it to delete an entire publication from public view was really disturbing. In April, Maria Bustillos, editor-in-chief of Popula, an information site hosted on the Civil network, told Observer that it was the same.

More recently, Civil s is associated with Associated Press to test its operation for large international companies.

"If anything, I would compare [blockchain] to the revolution of the Internet and the Web in the 90s, where there was a lot of idealism at first because there was no money attached to the protocols. And then, that began to be filled with competitive businesses, and then the stock market was involved. That's when you saw the boom and the bankruptcy and dot-com madness, "said Lubin. "Right now, we have a tremendous amount of activity in the chain of block ecosystem building new basic infrastructure. It's sort of an engine that will probably lead to the next round of speculative activity.