The list of companies lashing out against crypto in 2018 continues to grow, as technology giants Google and Facebook have officially banned cryptocurrency related ads on their platform, while Twitter is also planning to follow in their footsteps. Scott Spencer, Google’s Director of Sustainable Ads discussed the decision on his blog: “This year, we updated several policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference (or CFDs).”Facebook announced its new ads policy on Jan 31, 2018, restricting “ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.” Google’s ban on cryptocurrencies will take effect from June this year, while Facebook has already banned crypto related ads.
The official verdicts of both companies say that these bans are to help users not become the victim of ICO scams. This may be true to some extent, but it doesn’t tell the real story behind this ban. User data is gathered by these big tech companies and then sold to other big companies.
Technology giants may not be annoyed with cryptocurrency, but are threatened by the underlying technology, blockchain. The blockchain is the decentralized internet that gives users the ability to transmit not only value but secure information in the blink of an eye, to anyone in the world. It allows one person or community to build a platform that is distributed, decentralized, censorship-free, and mostly importantly gives authority to all members forming the ecosystem.
This is the largest threat to owners of big tech companies: that blockchain will take business away from them.
Platforms like the BitClave search engine provide businesses, for the very first time, with the opportunity to reach directly to the consumer by removing intermediaries like Facebook and Google. The unique proposition of BitClave is the power that users have over their data, and that they are paid whenever they disclose their data to get offers.
Why would Facebook and Google allow blockchain backed platforms like BitClave to be popularized? They are minding their future loss and are preparing for the future battle with blockchain. The blockchain is an open threat to these technology giants who are gathering user data for their own monetary benefit.
Advancements in technology are rarely welcomed at the start and this exactly what is happening with crypto and blockchain. This is just like how, while not many believed in the usability of the internet 30 years ago, today 40% of the world is connected to the web. Blockchain-based utilities is the technology of the future that is developed to remain in use. Just as Google came from one small idea, the challenge to Google will be built from a pure idea, but based on blockchain and empowering users instead of exploiting them.