Reddit Co-founder: Bear Market is Good for the Blockchain Industry

Alexis Ohanian, one of the co-founders of Reddit, recently revealed he believes the declining prices experienced in the crypto market throughout 2018 are good for the blockchain industry.

He remarked that this “crypto winter” gives those who are working on creating and developing the space and paving the way for innovation and real use cases less distractions. The statements were made this week, during an interview for Breaker magazine. Alexis Ohanian is notably a highly successful entrepreneur and renowned crypto supporter.

In 2005, he founded the prominent social news forum Reddit from his college dorm room. As Reddit became a popular playground for Bitcoin and crypto enthusiasts, Alexis was offered a rare and early opportunity to observe, learn, and communicate with the crypto community.

Great little history of crypto on Reddit in here, too: “Ask Origin’s Founders and Paypal Cofounder Anything on @Reddit” by @colemansmaher https://t.co/SJoiGtXkkY pic.twitter.com/LNPrQ8IZOp

— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) August 7, 2018

The entrepreneur started developing a keen interest in crypto and in 2013 he decided to take a step back in the management of Reddit and focus on Initialized Capital, a venture capital fund he co-founded with Garry Tan in 2011.

The interview with Breaker was directed at both Garry and Alexis, as it tried to get a scope on the inner workings of Initialized Capital.

Initialized Capital has invested in Coinbase, one of its earliest and most successful investments, CoinBundle, a crypto investment platform, and DDEX, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. The venture fund has also invested in many other startups outside of the crypto sphere.

The duo first explained they make no distinction when it comes to investing in a blockchain or non-blockchain startup. According to them, they look for crypto projects that are able to outperform the competition. Decentralization is not so much of a factor, as Alexis thinks that “there are still scenarios where a centralized database is actually better, cheaper, faster”.

Alexis went on to state that his pursuit for internet freedom is still alive. Regardless of his sentiments about this having been a bad year, with the FCC repealing its net neutrality laws, he noted he believes the war for freedom will eventually be won:

“There’s a whole chunk of the American dream wrapped up in this idea that you just need a laptop and a great idea to build a billion dollar company and win because people love it. That’s something worth fighting for, and something we’ll keep fighting for. I think we’ll win, but it’s been a bad year for sure.”

When asked what makes investing in the crypto space so exciting, Garry replied that “once software eats money, it can do all these interesting things”. He went on to state that the first use case of cryptocurrencies is to store value.

The entrepreneur added he believes bitcoin and Ethereum’s ether will be long standing references as stores of value (SoV) but “beyond that it’s a big question mark in terms of which [cryptocurrencies]will be valuable long-term”. Lastly, the duo shared that their intention and focus is on building technologies that are better, cheaper and faster.

Ohanian has, as CryptoGlobe covered, revealed earlier this year he is bullish on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, as the flagship cryptocurrency has “some real traction” to be used as a SoV. Per his words, we’re in the early days of crypto, which needs to be more user friendly.