Everipedia Co-Founder Mahbod Moghadam Reveals Bold Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Forecasts for 2020 and Future

Balaji Srinivasan — the most influential figure in crypto — advised me to purchase Bitcoin when he visited the Rap Genius office to ask me to convince Nas to create a diss track about Gawker on behalf of Peter Thiel so he would invest in us. I also met Brian Armstrong at YC Demo Day and I became an early Coinbase investor — I was extremely impressed by this individual.

Apologies for being biased but Everipedia is the ONLY consumer dApp with traction, nothing else even appears promising. I believe our initiative to build an IQ token ecosystem with other dapps like Prediqt is the most promising on the consumer side of things. In DeFi, it seems like Ethereum is dominating so I'm pleased to be an early Ethereum investor as well! I can't name many legitimate companies though, I believe there are still numerous competitors. Obviously I still believe in Coinbase, I'm proud to be an early investor — I think they will eventually outperform all the banks. I just heard about Polkadot.network and I'm trying to learn more – definitely sounds interesting! And perhaps most importantly, I'm still bullish on Libra and Zuck's crypto plans – NEVER DOUBT ZUCK! He understands the power of crypto better than anyone in Silicon Valley.

Zuck is facing significant headwinds, and I believe it's because he envisions the future, at least I hope so. I don't understand the point of Libra being a stablecoin — I think it should be like Facebook stock, similar to how the IQ token works for Everipedia. I'm hoping Zuck plans to decentralize Facebook, in the same manner as SteemIt and Everipedia. I believe the name of the token should be FacebookCoin or Facecoin, not Libra.

It seems like VCs are no longer enthusiastic about funding crypto startups, which I find ridiculous. It appears to have become a taboo term in pitch decks. Obviously the ICO collapse was extremely problematic — eerily similar, in my opinion, to the 2000 tech bubble burst. Also, until someone like Zuck makes everyone have a crypto wallet, mass adoption with crypto is challenging. It's like the early internet – you have some very passionate tech enthusiasts who will use your product, but most people are simply unable to use it because they don't have a wallet. In some ways, though this can be beneficial as well — your users will often be dedicated supporters, as is the case with Everipedia and now with Prediqt.

Until a month ago I would have said yes, but now I have changed my stance. It looks like Ethereum is dominating. I am not a developer, but people I trust believe that Ethereum 2.0 is outperforming other altcoins as well as Bitcoin's Lightning Network. One part of my philosophy is that technology is all about brands. If you have a great brand, and a competitor builds superior technology, then you can simply replicate their technology, like what Facebook did to Snapchat. And it seems like Ethereum is winning as a brand. Especially for DeFi, it has by far the most developers working on it, and the most prestigious ones.

Bitcoin is great because it is the original and it is truly decentralized — but perhaps it is too decentralized. There is no Mark Zuckerberg type figure behind Bitcoin as Ethereum has with Vitalik. So I believe that Bitcoin is going to be used as storage — digital gold — but it seems like Ethereum is the strongest bet for transactions. Otherwise, I am bullish on IQ or tokens like ours that represent the value and utility of a specific company.

I am supporting Bernie 100 percent. He has earned this. Maybe we can get Yang as VP! Or a cabinet position. Also, I think we can make Bernie see the light on crypto, so long as we emphasize to him that it can help in the downfall of big banks!

Unfortunately – I talked to Tom just once in the past 5 years, and I tried to make him see the potential. But he would never do it. I recall our discussion of Bitcoin back in 2013 — Tom is resistant to change! He used to work for a hedge fund before we built Genius so he is not into this whole crypto thing. But it's a massive opportunity. A big reason I got into crypto is I felt how it was different from what I did at Genius. I remember one time I got in trouble for putting up a blog post called "Change Genius" proposing small payments for editors who complete certain tasks. Everyone got angry at me! The leadership — Tom and Ilan — it was a disaster. Genius is de-emphasizing its community and focusing more on the "Verified" videos of artists, so I don't blame Tom in a way — it doesn't make sense for them right now. But for me, it's a shame! It would be my dream to see Genius decentralized but it won't happen. Alas!

StackOverflow and Quora. Q&A sites are my passion. After Prediqt has some solid traction, the Everipedia team plans to build a site called IQ&A which is Q&A decentralized on the IQ token. I'm really excited. I was a top contributor on Quora before I got banned — I was probably their most popular contributor of all time. I'm passionate about Q&A sites because I'm really into philosophy.

Jack Dorsey is too much of an idealist to execute. He'll never actually build anything substantial because he's too busy smoking weed and going on vacation to exotic places. I think Zuck is way more likely to build a decentralized social network than Dorsey. THAT BEING SAID… I like Dorsey's focus on Bitcoin. It would be cool if Facebook wanted to integrate with Bitcoin too rather than pushing Libra. Bitcoin has the brand recognition, it is the king of all cryptos — so it would be cool if Bitcoin could become the "internet money." But from what I've heard from developers, Lightning is not really working well. It seems like Bitcoin, sadly, is destined only to be a store of value, and not to function for transactions.

I think everyone else has lost their faith in Mark Zuckerberg but I haven't. I think he's the person who can lead the crypto revolution. Among mainstream tech figures the CEO of Twitter is the big crypto supporter, and I mean — come on — there is not nearly as much he can do as Zuck can. Zuck is the one who brought the internet to everyone, I think he will also be the person who gives everyone a crypto wallet.