The Challenges Of Defining What A Bitcoin Company Is
One of the challenges of operating in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and selling products to Bitcoiners, is navigating the various standards of purity tests to determine what a Bitcoin company truly is. Is a company a Bitcoin company if they partner with companies that are not Bitcoin only? Or are they a Bitcoin company if they direct marketing energy at Bitcoin conferences, podcasts, and social media?
The definition of what a Bitcoin company is not clear, and seems to be constantly evolving. On Wikipedia, there is a list of supposed Bitcoin companies, but many of them would not meet the qualifications of what most people use to determine what a Bitcoin company is. Even Wikipedia seems confused on the definition.
They state on the page that, "This is a list of for-profit companies with notable commercial activities related to bitcoin. Common services are cryptocurrency wallet providers, bitcoin exchanges, payment service providers[a] and venture capital."
Different individuals have different standards when it comes to expectations of purity in order to reach the status of using the title "Bitcoin company." Some only expect the company to sell a product that interacts with Bitcoin in some way, or accepts Bitcoin for their products and services.
If the standard is to have Bitcoin on the balance sheet, the US government and Tesla could be considered Bitcoin Companies, despite them never sponsoring a conference or podcast. There is a clear need to define the term and have universal standards that the autists who work tirelessly to audit Bitcoin companies can understand and agree upon.
This article is a call to action for the credentialed individuals in the Bitcoin communication channels to band together, create a definition that clearly states what a Bitcoin company is and isn't.