TIME called Coinbase a disruptor

Back in 2021, TIME magazine launched its TIME100 Most Influential Companies list.

It’s an annual ranking where editors and correspondents evaluate companies across different sectors based on relevance, impact, innovation, leadership, and success.

It’s not about who’s biggest or richest, but who’s actually important in shaping the world.

And get this: Coinbase made it into the Disrupters category of the list this year.

Disrupters are companies that are changing how things work, usually by:

• Replacing outdated business models;

• Working in legally unclear areas

• Fixing problems older companies ignored;

• Or changing how people behave / making a cultural impact.

These companies often give us a sneak peek into where industries are headed.

The ideas they’re testing – while still early or risky – can force bigger, slower competitors to adapt.

So seeing a crypto company there is a kind of a big deal.

TIME’s write-up points out that Coinbase has made over $2B in revenue since last fall, helped turn crypto into a political issue, and became the first crypto company in the S&P 500.

So yeah, welcome to the mainstream – wipe your boots at the door.

🤔 What good is it for?

Ever had someone ask you what Bitcoin is actually for besides “making tech bros rich” or “buying drugs on the dark web”?

And of course, sometimes your brain likes to go Windows 95 loading screen mode when you need it most. So you end up mumbling something about “digital gold” and immediately regret how unconvincing you sound.

Well, try to remember this comeback next time:

Alex Gladstein from the Human Rights Foundation called Bitcoin the most important human rights technology of the 21st century.

And hear him out.

Around the world, there are governments that aren’t exactly known for respecting individual freedoms.

They can freeze bank accounts when people attend the wrong protest, support the wrong cause, or simply because someone in power doesn’t like them.

However, with Bitcoin, assuming you control your own keys and aren’t keeping everything on some exchange, good luck to any government trying to freeze your wallet.

Take Ukraine in 2013-2014, when Viktor Yanukovych’s government froze protesters’ bank accounts to cut off their funding.

The Human Rights Foundation still needed to get money to them, so they tried Bitcoin instead.

And it worked – activists received the funds they needed when banks wouldn’t cooperate.

But even if you live in a relatively free country, you’re not immune to financial control.

Ask anyone who’s dealt with banks “temporarily” freezing accounts during “routine reviews,” international money transfers that take forever and cost a fortune, or having to explain to your bank why you’re sending money to family abroad.

Bitcoin doesn’t care about your government’s mood swings, your bank’s “business hours,” or whether some bureaucrat thinks your transaction looks “suspicious.”

So next time someone asks what Bitcoin is “really” for, you can tell them: it’s for anyone who thinks they should control their own money instead of asking permission from institutions that may or may not have their best interests at heart.

It’s financial independence in your pocket.

And honestly, in a world where everything else seems to be getting more centralized and controlled, that’s pretty damn important.