Cryptocurrency has been at the mercy of fluctuating public perception over the course of its lifecycle. Rejected by banks at its inception and then blown into a craze by the social media hype cycle, bitcoin has seen its true utility too often overshadowed by its instability. With a new focus on streamlining blockchain processes, some believe crypto could disrupt the tech giants with innovative opportunities in decentralization.

“I looked at it very much … as a new monetary system, and I still see unlimited opportunities in that area,” said Halsey Minor (pictured),CEO of Live Planet, a strategic technology partner and an investor in the VideoCoin Network. “It wasn’t until really a couple years later that I saw the blockchain as the new architecture for the computer.”

A tech pioneer with a knack for getting ahead of the trend with companies such as Salesforce.com Inc. and CNET, Minor intends to bridge efficiency gaps in blockchain and disrupt today’s online video industry with his new company VideoCoin. Minor spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Polycon18 event in the Bahamas. They discussed the dubious reputation of some of tech’s crazes and why blockchain and crypto are here to stay.

Creating a revolution through blockchain

Minor firmly believes in the power of blockchain tech as a game-changing disruptor, both against tech giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and in favor of civilians with much to gain from decentralization. In 2013, his passion motivated the development of Uphold Inc., a company that boasted the tagline “The Internet of Money.”

“What motivated me to start Uphold [was] the ability to turn your phone into your bank and be able to exchange money … solving the ability for the poor to be able to move money around without having 10 to 20 to 30 percent of it taken away,” he said.

Despite remaining challenges in his journey to deliver financial equity to all, Minor has begun making strides toward decentralization in the two years since founding VideoCoin. Through the discovery that cryptomining success is dependent on access to power, Minor found he could leverage unused servers and data centers to perform his “video mining” and decentralize video encoding, storage and content distribution for a more cost-effective streaming process.

“All these companies are confronted with these costs, and they can’t monetize them,” Minor said. “We cut the cost 60 to 80 percent.”

In addition to lowering costs, VideoCoin also encourages a software developer community through what is essentially its open-source system. “Everything we build is open source … all the way through to the network,” he said. “It creates a palate for people to start innovating in video. Because really what’s happening is a lot of innovation is getting hurt by the fact these big guys totally dominate it.”

With VideoCoin initiatives at work transforming media, Minor plans to someday bring his subversive approach back to the financial sector. “The problem I set out to solve, which is really creating a more equitable financial system … is still not solved,” he said. Banks make about $37 billion a year in bounced-check fees, so simply by getting rid of those, he said, “you create a revolution.”

Here’s the complete interview, and there’s much more SiliconANGLE and theCUBE coverage of Polycon18.

Photo: SiliconANGLE