The Winklevoss twins, famous for their early investment in Bitcoin and launching of the Gemini exchange, recently headed a discussion at the SXSW conference. In front of an audience of seven hundred the twins talked about how regulation can lead to growth, the increasing interest in crypto, how the crypto winter has effected development and why they believe that interest in crypto is at a tipping point.

How Crypto Regulations Can Lead to Growth

One of the twin’s main points was that almost all of the most successful markets are well regulated. They pointed out that it’s hard to grow a market when there are accidents like what happened with QuadrigaCX where the CEO passed away and because he hadn’t shared a way to access funds stored in cold wallets that crypto was lost forever.

Although many crypto holders bristle at the thought of government regulation, Tyler Winklevoss was quick to point out crypto’s future if properly regulated, “we think this is the internet of money – we had the first twenty five years with the internet and the next twenty five years with crypto could be even larger.”

Growing Interest in Crypto

In a Medium post Cameron Winklevoss pointed out how in 2016 when they attended the SXSW conference there were only ten sessions related to crypto and blockchain technology. Three years later there was an entire blockchain track with fifty sessions to choose from. That marks a huge surge in popularity in just a couple of years.

Why the Crypto Winter has Led to Increased Innovation

In regards to innovation and the increased pace of development, Cameron pointed out that, “in times like 2017, when mania overshadows discipline, everything seems like a good idea. Today, the quality of projects and entrepreneurs pursuing them has never been higher. We are all forced to make thoughtful decisions and trade-offs, which we believe will ultimately lead to better results for our industry as a whole.”

Now that money is scarce, scams and coins with little value are being overlooked and only those developers working on truly impactful projects are getting funded.

Crypto is at a Tipping Point

According to Cameron, audience engagement and the number of thoughtful questions, “demonstrates that cryptocurrency is in fact no longer a fringe technology. The brightest minds in the room are flocking to crypto and looking to build on this decentralized, permissionless, open system.”

He went on to say that in the last few years “the crypto market has matured significantly.” While this increased interest may be heavily biased towards the technologically advanced, many people believe that more intuitive user interfaces and other simplifications are going to open up cryptocurrency to millions more people.

The SEC Weighs In

Of course the Winklevoss twins were not the only presenters at SXSW. Valerie Szczepanik of the SEC also weighed in on the crypto winter and claimed that as long as good regulations are put into place, “I do think the spring is going to come.”

Between the Winklevoss twins and all the other presenters at SXSW there was an incredible amount of good news and positive sentiment, even in the midst of a prolonged bear market. Many people expressed their belief that the future of crypto is bright and there is nowhere to go but up. Hopefully their predictions are accurate and in the coming months and years we get to see what it’s like when the whole world is talking about cryptocurrency.



