Is encryption approaching its “Netscape moment”?

this year fraction The 30th anniversary of the birth of the first web page on the World Wide Web, which means that a person must be nearly half a century old to clearly remember the progress of the patchwork, the start and stop of errors, and the trial and error of what ultimately gives us. Now is life in the 21st century. The decisive basis for

We take the Internet in 2021 for granted, but it took us decades to get there. Over the years, barriers to adoption have gradually disappeared, and there are clear signs that this new technology will fundamentally change the way the world lives and works.

Now, the soaring Bitcoin (Bitcoin), This Coinbase’s blockbuster IPO with Appointment of MIT Blockchain Professor Gary Gensler, who leads the US Securities and Exchange Commission, provided clear signs that another technology will change on a similar scale: cryptocurrency.

Do these recent developments mean that encryption is approaching its “Netscape moment”?

In the early 90s, the Internet was about connecting to three major services through telephone modems-AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy-all of which constituted what we call “global wait”, which illustrates the headaches caused by loading those basic pages . For those of us who are old enough, these earliest transitional periods, all the way to the consumer Internet, we all clearly remember the moment when everything changed.

In August 1995, Netscape launched its main product Navigator, which was the first allow Anyone can surf the Internet without having to pay for the “World Wide Wait’s” service.This was the moment when Internet adoption became mainstream, and it triggered a Network blasting In April 2000, a template for investors and consumers to think about the Internet and the World Wide Web was established.

related: Blockchain is evolving like the Internet: who will become encrypted Hotmail?

Encrypted timeline: are we there yet?

When you are engrossed in the uncertainty of the present, it is difficult to see the certainty of tomorrow, or at least the narrative of tomorrow as described by today. Maybe the whole technology is not over, making it as mysterious and alluring as the crypto world.

However, it is hard not to see the similarities between the current state of encryption adoption and the Internet that existed in 1995. Although many news cycles focus on the boom and bust of pricing, in terms of true financial and technological uses, encryption still exists and remains a playground for early adopters and geeks. Many institutions and professional investors are interested in playing with it, but most major financial institutions have not taken it seriously yet.

related: Institutional investors will not take Bitcoin as the mainstream – you will

I believe that 2021 will be the year of all these changes. The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of money printing around the world.Cryptocurrency market Standing With a market value of approximately US$2 trillion, Bitcoin is in the news every day, which can be said to be more regular and longer than the boom period from 2017 to 2018.

This new hype cycle is accompanied by the gradual increase in general encryption awareness that has been rising since 2017 to 2018. Professional investors and institutions are more keen to immerse their toes in the water of cryptocurrency, even if it only means developing a kind of bit. Currency exchange-traded funds.

History will not repeat, only rhyme

The encryption seems to be like this should Inevitable– In other words, the power of quantity,The Mathematical School of Thales and Satoshi Nakamoto should also bear in mind the old saying of the empiricist Emmanuel Kant: “The crooked wood of man has never been made.” We cannot superimpose the timeline of the Internet onto encryption. Currency, and then say: “Aha! This is when it happens.” Some time scales of adoption and development may continue to accelerate, while others stagnate.

External events may also interfere, such as a pandemic. Initially thought to be an event that might deter the crypto market and innovation, due to the initial financial panic and the need for liquidation, the flagship price of Bitcoin increased tenfold in the first year of the pandemic. The government puts itself at currency risk through debt expenditures, and people dig deeper into the online world than before, insisting on defining the cryptocurrency of so many online lives and discussions.

related: How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect the crypto space?Expert answers

One thing that is certain is that encryption requires the advocacy and cooperation of the US government to enjoy the “Netscape Moment”, especially in the Western world. The Netscape era will happen when the U.S. government, especially the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), issues clear regulations on fundraising, custody, “know your customer” guidelines, taxation, investment, and transfer rules. Even better is that the SEC announced that cryptocurrency is not a security, but a new asset class with its own set of rules.

related: The U.S. has lost to Europe in the 2020 crypto regulation race

Gensler, who was recently appointed as the head of the SEC, made it clear that he saw the potential and value of the new digital currency. Recently, he announced that he would conduct some clear regulatory negotiations on the space that could open the floodgates for billions of dollars in institutional capital. This will be a huge development that can stabilize the popular and fluctuating Bitcoin prices on the first day of an IPO.

related: Crypto-friendly faces are ready to take up positions in Biden’s administration

The United States has become a leader in the Internet movement because, based on our wisdom, we allow e-commerce companies to develop without the burden of sales tax in the state and municipal districts. This has allowed the industry to develop into the behemoth it is today. Although Al Gore may regret it forever, because he once claimed that the U.S. government promotes national network and technology efforts through the Internet. High Performance Computing Act of 1991The fact is that the pro-Internet policy of the US government has indeed helped the Internet develop so rapidly. Marc Andreesen created the “Netscape Moment” and has at least a share of helping to invent the Internet as we know it, and he said the same thing.

Today, the US government finds itself at a similar crossroads. Free market economies such as Switzerland, Singapore, Malta, and Panama have seen the dawn, and we all hope that major countries will be willing to see the wisdom that allows the cryptocurrency industry to flourish. U.S. investor-friendly rules will enable the U.S. to maintain its leading position in innovation and technology (note that Gensler).

If the United States wants to repeat the past 25 years of history, a section of the supreme history of the United States as a global technological innovation leader, then it must repeat its early pro-Internet policy approach and pave the way for new development. Encryption technology that will break through in the same way as Netscape.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading action involves risks, and readers should research on their own when making a decision.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are only those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.