Time for a Name Change
Why it’s time to come up with a new name to replace “Crypto”
Ric Edelman: It's Tuesday, July 25th. You know, I'm a big fan of crypto and I talk about it a lot. I wrote a whole book about it called The Truth About Crypto. Amazon number one bestseller. But I got to admit, crypto has got a problem. You know what it is: The name. I said so in my book, in the immediate first page of the book, I said, “Don't call it crypto.”
Why did I call my book The Truth About Crypto? Thank my publisher. Bottom line is this: crypto is a lousy name. It's scary crypto. It sounds like crypt. It sounds like death. It just does. And in fact, it's gotten to the point where some blockchain and NFT projects are rebranding themselves.
Forget about NFTs. That's got a bad rap too. You're going to start to hear more about digital collectibles instead. Other companies are dropping the whole name of crypto or associated words. Riot Blockchain, the largest publicly traded bitcoin miner in the country, Riot Blockchain is now Riot Platforms.
And even the World Economic Forum says it's all about this. The entire crypto space, they say, needs to rebrand itself to “decentralized systems”.
Well, I think that this whole branding issue is evidence of maturity. You don't bother wasting time thinking about what you call yourself until after you have something to have worth being called. So I'm pretty excited about the fact that people are spending time thinking about what the name ought to be that effectively reflects what it is we are and what it is we're doing. I think it's a good, healthy sign and I'm open to ideas. What do you think we ought to call what we've been calling crypto? Send me your ideas. I'm happy to hear them. How do you send me your ideas? You'll find a link in the show notes, making it easy for you to do that. I'll see you tomorrow.
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Announcer: Demystifying digital assets. Putting crypto in context and getting you ready for what's next.
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