Bitcoin Jesus contributed the most for the adoption of Bitcoin [BTC], says Erik Voorhees

Recently, Erik Voorhees, the Founder of ShapeShift spoke about Bitcoin and the evolution of the coin in the past 10 years and the companies that survived the space for such a long time, during a discussion with Naomi Brockwell on Youtube.

The CEO of a leading cryptocurrency exchange started off by speaking about projects that either failed or disappeared over the past 10 years in the market and whether it was foreseen or not. Voorhees admitted that there have been many companies that have disappeared in the past ten years, however, there were not any which shocked him.

He gave an example of Mt. Gox, which was once the biggest Bitcoin exchange platform and Silk Road, the famous online black marketplace. He said:

“I mean Mt. Gox was starting to have lots of problems and it was clearly on the downturn. When that blew up, you know, that could have been seen a mile away. Silk Road was always a hugely risky operation, which ultimately did get shut down but of course that model live on and there are many more dark net markets at this point.”

Voorhees also stated that it is interesting to see the companies that have continued to survive in this market. He quoted the example of Coinbase, which has been in the market for over five years and recently raised $3 million in their Series E funding with a valuation of $10 billion. He also added Bitpay, and Zappo, one of the biggest Bitcoin wallets which have built a model that has not been hacked.

He further added:

“I think that’s a huge victory. I mean it is capitalism. There are many companies, most startups fail, most projects fail, but ultimately the ones that are put together will persist and get better and better. We have a whole ecosystem in a whole industry that is sprouted out of nothing ten years ago”

Furthermore, Voorhees spoke about the growth and adoption of Bitcoin. He believes that Roger Ver, known as Bitcoin Jesus, was one of the main people who contributed the most for the adoption of Bitcoin by onboarding more individuals through taxi/cab rides and restaurant visits.

He said:

“He did that thousands of times. Literally. I mean people care about this, they see that it’s sensible means of exchange that’s as important to the world as an insensible means or insensible means of communication and speech and not everyone gets that, you know, I think when a lot of these struggles for liberty, the majority doesn’t quite understand it or care and so, you basically have a dedicated minority that has to risk it all and push it forward and struggle through every obstacle to actually bring it to the rest of the world”