Brendan Lee spoke with Michael Hudson on the Bitstocks Podcast, setting out his journey into crypto, and the work ongoing with both Elas Digital and the Bitcoin SV Academy.
Have people been fooled by BTC? In our podcast this evening, @btchudson speaks with @Brendan_Lee__, CEO and Co-Founder of Elas to discuss exactly that.
Tune in to Bitstocks Media on YouTube at 5 pm BST to watch the episode and make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications! 📺 pic.twitter.com/g1NmH8J543
— Bitstocks (@Bitstocks_) May 27, 2021
After developing an interest in digital currency around 2017, like so many others new to the scene, Lee bought some BTC on the promise of speculation. He soon became aware of an ongoing Bitcoin Civil War, and began to learn more about BSV and how it best represents the true original vision of Bitcoin as documented in the Satoshi whitepaper.
As he became more involved in the digital currency world, Lee realized that the true value proposition was not in trading coins, but in utilizing bitcoin as infrastructure, powering a world of applications that could revolutionize the collection, use and management of data.
When his brother and even his mother began buying into BTC at the height of the 2017 bubble, Lee said he knew it was time to get out. He moved away from the volatile speculation of Segwit into backing the practical use case of Bitcoin technology that is Bitcoin SV.
Today, through his work with Elas Digital and the Bitcoin SV Academy, Lee is helping shape the infrastructure of BSV enterprise blockchain.
Lee described how he quickly found himself in a select group who could see the true vision and endpoint for Bitcoin, through BSV. As he learned more about BSV and how it scales, he realized this was an important opportunity in BSV, and decided to go all in on developing the technology. Describing BSV as the “biggest revolution in tech in the last 100 years” he foresaw the need to turn the tech into a global blockbuster with the capacity to handle millions of transactions, all day every day, in order to succeed. According to Lee, Bitcoin is nothing until it’s everywhere, and that is why he is full steam ahead on BSV.
On the BSV space right now, Lee said people who are using BSV services today are already diehard, but it is still too early for mass organic adoption. But those people who do gravitate towards BSV tend to come and stay. As soon as they use the technology, they realize it is unlike anything else available. Currently, organic growth remains slow. With Elas Digital, his focus is on engaging governments and enterprises of scale, trying to win larger projects powered by Elas’ core technology, which will ultimately spur growth in the wider BSV scene.
On the role of Elas, Lee gives the example of a token issuer—if you say a token represents something, you bind yourself to that token and are honor bound to uphold that contract with the buyer. If you’re a government and you say that token is our money, but then refuse to accept it, that’s a bad position to be in—that is where Elas Digital steps in, helping provide solutions to these problems that support the token economy and greater adoption of BSV.
Speaking about his work with Bitcoin Association, he described how it was foundational to developing his understanding, and ultimately the concept behind Elas Digital. He started out with the Bitcoin Wiki, released at CoinGeek London. Lee worked alongside nChain and others to add to it, expand it, and flesh out the wiki getting into the fine detail about exactly how Bitcoin should work. This task helped him develop his own knowledge around Bitcoin to truly appreciate the technology and its capacity for widespread economic and societal change.
He then started the Bitcoin SV Academy, a project that is building university-quality coursework with certification for Bitcoin SV. Run alongside Bitcoin Association, the Academy plans to get certification from a ratings agency to say it is a high-quality institution to certify qualifications from those completing the course.
The courses themselves take 9-10 hours, and provide a challenging curriculum that is designed to grow new fresh talent within the Bitcoin SV ecosystem. As more people enroll, the project could prove one of Lee’s most significant contributions to date to the overall success of BSV enterprise blockchain.
Watch the full conversation between Michael Hudson and Brendan Lee on the Bitstocks YouTube channel:
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
