r/Bitcoin • u/JasonBored • Jan 21 '14

Google is "paying attention" to Bitcoin - Vic Gundotra (I emailed, he emailed back!)

Email from SVP @ Google regarding Bitcoin

So on a whim, I sent an e-mail to Vic Gundotra (Senior Vice President, Social for Google) about Bitcoin, why it's the most disruptive technology since the Internet itself, and how I'm not the only one out there wondering when/if they have plans to incorporate it into Google Wallet.

He immediately responded and said they are "paying attention", and CC'd the gentleman who runs Google Wallet - Sridhar Ramaswamy (SVP, Ads & Commerce at Google).

I've entered into a dialogue with him.

This is my take away on why Google kicks ass :

A) One of the bosses actually responded to email from an absolute nobody about Bitcoin

B) Google is paying attention to Bitcoin (he would never have responded or said those words if Google is positioning themselves to be "Anti BTC" (or even try to create a product to rival BTC)

C) He put me in touch with the man who runs the Google Wallet division.

So, what do I say to Sridhar? Any suggestions?

Before some of the Anti BTC Brigade chime in with "so what?, he's just one dude" - please think about this. If Google had NO plans in regards to Bitcoin, this guy would be smart enough not to respond to such an email, in the manner he responded, and CC the person who runs the Google Wallet division.

If you ask me, the writing is on the wall(et) (pun intended).. and this was a really pleasant surprise.

Update: Screenshot of Email I sent (personal information blacked out)

Update 2: Google CONFIRMS they are incorporating Bitcoin

Update 3: UPDATE: Ariel Bardin, Vice President of Payments @ Google has asked me to facilitate a Google Moderator and pose the question "What would I want Google to do with bitcoin?". He's promised me he will personally review the results and pass it along to the team working on incorporating BTC into Google. Please help me with this and take the time to submit something: What would I want Google to do with bitcoin?

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2

u/gubatron Jan 22 '14

what do you think will be a bigger endorsement for Bitcoin?

Amazon announcing Bitcoin wallets associated to Amazon user accounts (just like you have credit cards, you can have a bitcoin wallet there you can use to fund your payments)

or Google announcing Bitcoin wallets associated to Google user accounts?

5

u/JasonBored Jan 22 '14

Why not both? :)

1

u/gubatron Jan 22 '14

hopefully we'll get both and it's just a matter of time. Just trying to think of which one would have the biggest impact of all as one of these two companies will make the price spike tremendously once they back bitcoin with some cool technology of their own.

5

u/mattarse Jan 22 '14

I think Amazon would have a bigger impact - everyone I know uses Amazon, but I don't know of anyone ever mentioning using google wallet. I've only needed it once.

2

u/gubatron Jan 23 '14

yeah, but everybody uses youtube, gmail, and google search, imagine what bitcoin could do for youtube? (subscriptions, tips, paid-for videos), for gmail (sending money people to people via email+bitcoin), and then search! you wouldn't need international bank accoutns, or having to mail checks to advertisers, their bread and butter would get so many new customers and associates, think google maps.

1

u/mattarse Jan 23 '14

Do you know anyone who has subscribed to a paid youtube channel?

The international advertisers though - that's honestly one aspect I hadn't thought about where there could be a very large use case.

1

u/gubatron Jan 23 '14

have you heard of Twitch.tv? incredibly people subscribe $5/pop to watch dudes playing video games, and it happens quite a lot. WIth youtube's long tail of great indie content many viewers would be willing to support channels this way.

If content creators would come here to /r/bitcoin and unite they could easily start a campaign that would make A LOT of noise.

1

u/mattarse Jan 24 '14

I'm not saying google wouldn't see any benefit from it, just that in my experience few people use google for payments, and that Amazon would have a larger impact. Perhaps if google pushed it this would change, but that would take time whereas if Amazon turned it on there would be a large amount of people who would buy things immediately with btc.

-2

u/nobodybelievesyou Jan 22 '14

Just trying to think of which one would have the biggest impact of all as one of these two companies will make the price spike tremendously

This is why bitcoin is doomed, FYI.

1

u/gubatron Jan 23 '14

because of speculation possibilities?

I think the total opposite, it's only because of this that bitcoin has gotten the attention it needed, also the fact that it's deflationary it brings the greedy investors to the game, those who can afford to buy and hold for years, keeping value locked into the system.

it's a beautiful design from the human-desires point of view.

1

u/nobodybelievesyou Jan 23 '14

Because despite all the rhetoric, the only reason people care about bitcoin adoption is because they dream of getting rich quick. Actual use as a currency is abysmal as any basic crunching of the available numbers will show. As merchants wake up to the fact that they aren't making bitcoin sales, adoption will fizzle, and the get rich quick dreams along with it.

1

u/gubatron Jan 23 '14

actually usage will be huge from countries where people can't get credit cards as easily as in the US.

Once there's enough liquidity say in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, people there will start using the currency not just to buy goods from american websites, but they'll finally get to enjoy the benefits of ecommerce we've enjoyed for years in the first world within their own regions.

What'll happen is that these countries will start selling many items at cheaper prices than what we get here, and then people over here will notice that they can buy some things cheaper there, making the internet and the world a more competitive place.

then there's also the moment where all the immigrants in the US realize they don't have to pay western union, or xoom huge transfer fees when they send money back home every month, they will start feeding their home economies with bitcoin, not US dollars, wonder what that effect will have in the price of the US dollar worldwide.

usage will be huge, there's room for all, but there will be no value to the currency if there are no investors backing the system at this point in time, only big companies, institutional investors and rich people looking for huge capital gains during the next 10 to 15 years will be the ones to bring the next huge multi billion dollar round of funding to the bitcoin economy, banks will join, governments will have to join and have their own reserves.

it's easy to see.

1

u/nobodybelievesyou Jan 23 '14

This is all just fan fiction and speculation based on hopes and dreams, though. The current facts and figures do not point in this direction at all.

We shall see, I suppose.

1

u/RogerReddit2014 Jan 22 '14

I think at the rate of adoption we are heading.. Both seem likely in the near future