Jason King is an internet entrepreneur, cryptocurrency enthusiast, and asset manager. He is the co-creator of the cryptocurrency FLASH. He’s also an early adopter of cryptocurrencies such as Monero. Currently a Managing Director at Binary Financial, he was previously the Assistant Fund Manager & Head of Game Assets at Alphabit Digital Currency Fund.
Hi Jason! Let’s start with you telling me a little about your background, and how you got into the space?
So I got into Bitcoin around early 2010 and been an enthusiast of distributed and decentralized networks ever since.
Back in the day I used to play video games, using pre-built gaming PC’s, eventually building my own, so I had experience with graphics cards and CPUs. This naturally progressed into mining, which led me to a serious fascination with tuning my mining rig (a bit like tuning a car) to achieve optimal speeds.
When Bitcoin started gathering momentum I was progressing in my career and eventually became Managing Director at Binary Financial. At Binary we facilitate the trades on behalf of clients who are looking to buy large block trades of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other tokens/coins etc. It’s a bit like buying real-estate, our clients would rather go to a specific broker, rather then just walk into a estate agents office. So, that’s where we came up with the idea that we cater to high-net worth individuals and institutions and do investments for them. It’s a great industry to be in and it’s been going really well!
As well as that, I’m also the co-creator of a cryptocurrency called FLASH. FLASH is a high-speed, low cost blockchain cryptocurrency aimed at the general public. We saw that cryptocurrency was (and is still) very challenging for the average person to use, thus our vision was to create something that is easier, cheaper and faster to use for new users coming into contact with cryptocurrencies. We want to lower the barrier of entry to cryptocurrency, making it accessible to everyone.
So how do you feel about the market right now?
There’s generally two views on the market, there’s people who tend to look at the market from a price perspective, seeing the price fluctuations of various coins, and smelling an opportunity. If we’re looking at a grand scheme of things, the long-term growth has the potential to be huge. Particularly if you look at where everything began, even since the January all-time high, some crypto assets have hit high prices. When the market was at its absolute peak we hit a 800 billion market cap, so if the market recovers, crypto assets will be well on their way to chasing after the top order or current internet business such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google etc.
This brings me on to the second type of people, there are those who don’t pay too much attention to the current price and just focus on the application of this technology. These people have faith in the blockchain, believing in the important role it will play in the future of the internet.
Bringing it back to how I feel about the space, I’m certainly a mixture of the two camps. I’m interested in the volatility and opportunities of the market, as well as the impact this technology could have around the world.
Thoughts on the potential of blockchain in general?
You’ve got to think: What is the single biggest innovation that the blockchain offers to the world?
I believe it’s the fact that, for the first time ever in a virtual space, we have the ability to define assets, the scarcity, and we have the ability to define boundaries. That’s very important because prior to the creation of Bitcoin you almost had ways to create boundaries, but they were created by centralized systems like banks or private data houses, which could be hacked or destroyed.
With the blockchain we now have a way to define, with mathematical certainty, that whatever value amount that you own, can be protected by the decentralized nature of the network. For example, if someone wanted to hack the network they’d have to individually infect every computer in the network with their malware, this is a lot harder than corrupting just one system.
This security can facilitate huge amounts of innovation because everyone’s data and assets can be protected on a whole new level. When we’re talking about data protection, we’re talking about something that is worth a lot more to businesses than just money. Data is information and information is simply the untapped potential of how to make money.
If you look at where we are today, what are the most valuable companies in the world? Where does their value come from? Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. It’s data right? Yes they do business selling entertainment and hardware, but that’s just a small part of the infrastructure.
So, I believe in a future where the single most important asset is data, and if you have the ability to create a secure home for that data, then you have the potential to disrupt any space.
What projects are you most excited about in the space and why?
There are a few projects that I’m very interested in, but one key point I really want to make is that I think that exchanges are massively overlooked. One of the fastest growing exchanges is Einstein, providing an easy-in easy-out gateway to the world of Crypto. In my opinion, these exchanges have the future potential to act like banks. If you think about what a bank is, it’s a place where clients put their money and the banks then pay them a little interest in return for the client trusting them. The banks then give the people their money back when they ask for it.
So, I see exchanges as a place where people will deposit their assets, they can then trade their assets in the hope that they make more money, and when they need it back, they can withdraw their assets. So I think people will start to use it like another bank account.
I see exchanges becoming very valuable pieces of digital real estate in the future. That’s why I think a lot of big institutions have been actively acquiring exchanges or looking to get into the exchange sector. They’ll soon found out though, that running exchanges is just as hard as running a bank. Especially since crypto assets demand high levels of IT and cybersecurity labour, which is in short supply in a whole new frontier.
The whole sector of video has huge potential. I mean, we rave about the blockchain as this new technology, but the underlying foundation tech is still the internet, and the most widely consumed content on the internet is video. I believe it’s going to remain that way for at least the next 5–10 years, at least until VR and AR mature.
We’ve come a long way compared to back in the day where you had to convert files constantly into various formats, for various devices. Now we have access to video files that are compatible with the majority of user devices.
With the Internet of Things on the horizon, the number of household devices and appliances that will communicate with the internet will drastically increase, some of them may need to consume video on some format. So, having the ability to transfer video format to these devices will be essential.
Why is bringing Video and the Blockchain together important and why should people care?
There’s a number of benefits of video being deployed on the blockchain but for me, what’s very important is the security and authenticity of video content. For example, video is used a lot now to determine future outcomes and to uncover factual information i.e. prove criminal activity, scientific research, national intelligence etc. So being able to prove that the video has been unaltered and is secure in its original state is very important. It will increase the reliability of video content, so viewers can be assured that what they’re seeing hasn’t been edited with special effects.
For movies it’s a better way for content creators to ensure that their content is protected, reducing intellectual property theft.
Again, we’re talking about information and data, and video is data at the end of the day, and as we’ve learnt data can be stolen. By using a secure decentralised network there’s a way to ensure that your videos are secured and not stolen.
This will benefit the creators, give them the confidence to create and be more ambitious, because they know that they’ll lose less money to piracy. This all will benefit the consumer in the long run.
Why is now the right time for video and the blockchain to come together?
I believe the world has a better understanding of what the blockchain is now, and what blockchain can actually do. So mass adoption is certainly on the horizon.
Additionally, governments such as the U.S, China, UAE and Russia are beginning to see the importance of blockchain as a pathway towards better information security. This is hugely important for nations, particularly as it involves national security matters. So, being able to master these tools and harness this technology is definitely on the leading world powers’ agenda.
Governments and the wider public aren’t that different. When they don’t understand something it’s scary, they call it a scam or a vehicle for illegal activity. But once they understand it they begin to build more confidence.
Thanks to this new confidence better things can happen for a space, because now we have more support of people who believe in the potential of this technology. Agreed there is still plenty of of criticism and doubt but I think over time the tech, and the people who support it, will bring innovation and advancements. Which, hopefully, will create this positive cycle of trust that can then trigger mass adoption.
Where do you see the future of video on the blockchain how do you see it disrupting existing industries?
Currently, if you look at existing video industries, if you want to consume content you need to go to centralised distribution networks.
When you go to YouTube or Netflix, all the content resides on private centralised networks and data banks. You don’t really have a way for information and these things to travel freely from the creator to the viewer.
Don’t get me wrong, YouTube is a great example of how you can create a platform and allow people to upload their own content. It’s immense how it became this democratised entity where many people built amazing channels which eventually grew into huge brands and successful businesses.
But just imagine if you have a platform that is available worldwide, and the distribution is much more accessible to all, more efficient and saves creators money. This just adds more possibilities to what the creators can produce, which really excites me.
What concerns do you have about the blockchain space?
My major concern is that the world isn’t ready for the new technology.
There’s a lot of excitement in the space and a lot of new people are jumping into the fray for the money, with a lot of them are getting burned.
They lack an understanding of the space and I think having a better knowledge of security surrounding exchanges and wallets will encourage more people to get involved.
Too many people are losing money by selling at the wrong time, or they’re being hacked, or they lose their private keys etc. We want everyone to have a pleasurable experience in this space because that’ll encourage mass adoption and give this technology the platform it deserves!
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