To say that 2013 was the Year of the Bitcoin Hype is nothing short of understatement. To say that bitcoins hit mainstream press is to say Barack Obama has a chance to become president of the United States. As evidence, Google published a list of the top 10 “What is” searches of the year. No. 1 was “What is twerking,” which says something about our society (although I am not going to get into that now). No. 10 on the list was “What is bitcoin.” But all this bitcoin hubbub needs to be put in context. Bitcoin, even from a search perspective, still does not come close to the volume of searches in 2013 for “online banking,” for example. Below is a graphic illustrating the search volume for “bitcoins” vs. “online banking,” and their volumes are not even close. ‘BITCOIN’ V ‘ONLINE BANKING’ SEARCH I share this data because it is important to realize that for all the media coverage surrounding bitcoins, at least today bitcoins apply to a small minority of consumers or users. However, “real” banking services remain widely demanded, and as any smart banker will tell you, those are the services banks should continue to provide [...]
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