Why Bitcoin Reminds This Former Skype Exec of the Startup’s ‘Beginnings’

By Josiah Wilmoth

A former Skype executive has stated that he sees interesting parallels between the emergence of bitcoin as a financial instrument and the rise of the now ubiquitous video-calling app.

Why Bitcoin Is Similar to Skype

Bitcoin’s disruptive potential is often compared to that of the internet, but one former tech executive believes its path to mainstream adoption is reminiscent of Skype, one of the internet’s “killer apps”.

“We were messing around doing all sorts with the internet and it kind of worked, and all the tools were nerdy and all the nerds used it, and it was great,” Michael Jackson, Skype’s former chief operating officer, told CNBC in an interview.

Similarly, the first bitcoin users were largely a mishmash of software engineers intrigued by the technology and libertarians attracted to a project that billed itself as an uncensorable currency.

However, over time, Skype refined its product into a user-friendly platform, and eventually, the network effect ran its course, and before long the company’s founders had made a billion-dollar exit.

Jackson, who is now a partner at venture firm Mangrove Capital Partners, stated that mainstream cryptocurrency adoption is charting a similar course.

“We’re seeing this tremendous interest from the rest of the world which is, for normal people, beginning to get terribly interesting,” he said.

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