“Is Bitcoin the new Myspace”?  5 Minutes with Moritz Bierling

1. The Blockchain is not a new phenomenon but has gained lots of attention in the last year. Do you think the technology is in trend or is this the snowball that starts a ripple entering a new era of high tech computing?

I believe we’re close to the top of the hype cycle and will see a “trough of disillusionment” shortly. The legal institutions are closing in and the golden era of unprecedented gains alongside unbridled enthusiasm seems over. I am with Preston Byrne on this one: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blockchain-technology-limited-applications-by-nouriel-roubini-and-preston-byrne-2018-03.

2. We’ve seen many projects building on the success of Bitcoin & Ethereum, even surpassing them in speed and efficiency. In your opinion, are we creating another “Myspace” situation?

Yes. These two were the “zero to one” projects in their respective niches. The current incumbents in the space do enjoy lots of developer support, commercial acceptance, and a strong brand. But they also have high costs, little throughput, and no good scaling solution.
In the medium to long run, what really matters isn’t size or strength but adaptability. Network effects cannot prevent other efforts from winning if those have lower marginal cost of onboarding, stronger incentives to stay and contribute to the ecosystem, and greater adaptability — in short, evolutionary capacity.

3. At Exosphere Academy you teach students to learn how to write smart contracts and replicate their own blockchain. Why do you think that is important?

Blockchain tech inspired a lot of people to help build a new breed of decentralized technologies to compete with our current centralized institutions. There also currently is a real market for the skills required to build such applications. In fact, we at Exosphere Academy were the first ones to offer a two month long developer training back when Ethereum was brand new. We choose to stay on that edge of the curve, because we like to help people acquire the tools, skills, and relationships they need to succeed in manifesting their values in the world. This kind of technology does that. And rest assured: we’re working on new programs and services that go beyond even blockchain training.

4. Exosphere describes itself as a “learning and problem-solving community, dedicated to leading a new generation of pioneers to bring positive change to the world”. What does that mean and why do we need this?

Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? We’re a community of knowledge, practice, and action that has varying levels of involvement for people who resonate with our values. There’s the core team that runs the organization, there are friends and supporters that help out here and there and cheer us on, there are alumni that go off and do their thing knowing they’ll always have their co-alumni and the Exosphere community to draw on for help.
The reasons we exist are severalfold, but one of them is that the university system especially in the US but also generally throughout the world doesn’t do its job very well. It deserves some competition to keep it lean and we alongside others like Praxis do that.

5. You will be one of the 75+ speakers at the C3 Crypto-Conference (CryptoTicker is co-organizing). What can we expect to hear from you?

I haven’t completely decided what to present yet. Usually, a topic comes to me shortly beforehand since I like to make my talks relevant to the people there. It’ll likely have something to do with what the crypto scene is developing towards.

Learn more about Moritz Bierling on his website (http://moritzbierling.com/) or connect with him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/bierlingm)