Circle CEO: Abandon narrow-mindedness, I am more optimistic about cryptocurrency than ever before

Original Author: Jeremy Allaire

Original Compilation: Mars Finance, MK

I am more optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency than ever before.

For the past 11 years, I have been dedicated to building @circle, but I have never felt as confident as I do now.

I also believe that most people's understanding of the current situation is extremely narrow and limited. This optimism is also invigorating.

This article will explain why I am so optimistic.

My perspective stems from a deep observation of the internet technology adoption cycles over the past approximately 35 years. We have witnessed the continuous evolution of open networks, open protocols, and open software, with internet infrastructure layering upon itself, enhancing its utility to society and the economy. Each wave has transformed major industries, increased utility, disrupted or altered unit economics, and opened up entirely new possibilities.

The collective contribution of open intellectual property to this ongoing internet revolution is actually accelerating, and cryptocurrency seems to be at the forefront of pushing society and the economy forward in extremely powerful new ways.

Over 11 years ago, when Sean and I considered this field, it was clear that cryptocurrency represented the next logical layer of internet infrastructure. Internet infrastructure enabled frictionless, nearly free data transmission, as well as the ability to seamlessly connect and deploy software and hardware on a global network, but it was clearly struggling under its own success and load.

The internet lacks a trust layer, which limits the utility it can provide. The inability to access fully trustworthy data, transactions, or computations has deepened reliance on hyper-centralized entities (businesses and governments).

At the same time, the role of the internet in society is rapidly growing, and its potential to play a larger role in social and economic organization is evident.

It was at this moment that Bitcoin suddenly emerged, and many technologists began to deeply consider how to expand the foundational knowledge of cryptocurrency to provide a more universal internet infrastructure that could become the foundation of society and the economy. Issuing digital tokens on public blockchains, mediated by smart contracts, can unleash a trusted environment globally, allowing nearly all components of society and the economy to become internet-native.

This is what drew me into this field; at that time, I clearly saw how everything would unfold, how these new decentralized internet computers would scale, and ultimately usher in a wave of transformation far beyond what we have seen from the information and communication internet.

In 2013, these ideas were considered crazy. Any association with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency was viewed as highly marginalized, even potentially illegal, and for most technologists, it was essentially a boring technological development. At that time, the technology was extremely limited, slow, costly, and complex to operate.

Trust institutions—banks, accounting and auditing firms, insurance companies, regulatory bodies—held extreme hostility and fear towards anything related to this field.

The media's main focus was on dark web markets, Silk Road, and the Winklevoss twins' Bitcoin purchases.

But if you really paid attention to the thoughts and actions of most young and creative builders, you could clearly see that a larger vision was about to unfold, even though the specific timeframe was unclear.

For those of us who have been building and working in this field since 2012 (and many even earlier!), the position we find ourselves in now is extraordinary. And, as I often say, we are indeed only in the very early stages of global adoption of cryptographic technology, and considering the progress we have made over the past decade, this makes me very optimistic today.

How far have we come? Here is an incomplete list of achievements and technological advancements.

Public blockchain infrastructure has evolved to the third generation, providing a globally scalable network computer capable of handling large-scale applications with trusted data, transactions, and computations.

Globally, there is a vast, thriving, and continuously growing community of competition and innovation composed of dozens of major blockchain network ecosystems, which are constantly improving and innovating in the foundational technologies of these networks (including data availability, computation, security, privacy, transaction throughput, etc.).

We are in the early broadband phase of blockchain networks. Can you guess what will happen next?

We have witnessed breakthroughs in security, privacy, and scalability based on ZK technology and existing FHE. A world centered around cryptographic computing applications is on the horizon.

Globally, tens of thousands of startups are building on this infrastructure.

Digital assets have become a recognized component of the emerging global financial system, with almost all major countries establishing clear regulations for the issuance, use, and trading of digital assets.

Bitcoin itself has become one of the largest and most important alternative investment assets globally.

The world's largest asset management companies are offering blockchain-based products and services and driving investment in foundational digital assets.

Cryptocurrency has become a global political issue, as its importance to national competitiveness becomes increasingly evident. Governments are racing to address this issue, ensuring that innovation is both responsible and promoted.

We see product user experiences unlocking consumer-level usage in unprecedented ways, allowing us to see more clearly how this will unfold for billions of users in the coming years.

As the advantages of public chains and stablecoins become increasingly apparent, most major payment companies globally are actively adopting this technology and exploring how to expand its applications.

The scale and use of stablecoins are experiencing explosive growth, becoming the most killer application of cryptocurrency, unleashing a global digital dollar, bringing more people into the future on-chain economy, and beginning to fulfill the promise of providing banking services to the unbanked, reducing remittance costs, and facilitating more seamless cross-border trade.

Stablecoins are becoming a form of digital currency recognized and accepted by almost all major jurisdictions. By the end of 2025, stablecoins will occupy an increasingly larger share of the "legal electronic currency" market.

The infrastructure for building, deploying, and operating blockchain applications has made tremendous progress. Enterprise-grade products and services help users utilize these networks, and hosted infrastructure can scale for self-custody controlled by end users, becoming a reliable infrastructure for the world's largest banks and asset management companies.

Developer tools, SDKs, and knowledge bases are accelerating growth, with more and more people acquiring "blockchain capabilities."

Large consumer-scale companies are launching online applications connected to public chains and using digital tokens across various use cases.

Governments are investing in blockchain infrastructure, ecosystem development, and legislation to incentivize companies to build in their regions.

Every week we see more and more exciting technological applications, from payments to social, from gaming to ticketing, and enterprise use cases, continuously receiving attention.

I could continue to elaborate, but the scale of everything now compared to ten years ago is truly astonishing. Just like the previous waves of open internet infrastructure, this wave is continuously growing and becoming stronger every day, every week.

As I mentioned earlier, we are still in the early stages of adopting cryptographic technology. This is very encouraging.

What will it look like when digital tokens become widely understood and legally used forms of incentives, governance, and record-keeping globally?

What will it look like when more and more financial and business structures are executed and mediated by smart contracts on public chain infrastructure?

What will it look like when fourth-generation blockchain networks support billions of users and millions of applications?

What will it look like when on-chain organizations gain legal recognition and grow rapidly, competing for labor and capital with traditional multinational corporations?

What will it look like when political institutions—cities, states, nations, and new networked nations—adopt on-chain governance and improve the expression of democratic values in the internet age?

What will it look like when 10% of global economic funds are stablecoins, when credit intermediaries shift from fractional reserve lending to on-chain credit markets built on safer digital cash tools (like stablecoins), opening up credit and debt markets, impacting the long tail of supply and demand like Amazon did for commerce and AdWords did for advertising?

All of this could be realized within the next decade. Time flies, but when you look back at the achievements that have already been made and see how these achievements are paving the way for our future, it is hard not to feel extremely optimistic.