Ai Editorial: BITCOIN – Beyond Imagination - a Terrifying Currency?

Ai Editorial from Jiri Marek, former Executive Sales & Marketing Director, LOT Polish Airlines

BITCOIN – Beyond Imagination - a Terrifying Currency?

This is my own definition of this growing phenomena of new age, describing feelings, principles, fears and opinions coming to the mind of people whenever they hear word BITCOIN It came to me through my experience of introduction BITCOIN as payment method into Aviation. How BITCOIN and AVIATION can get along with each other?

“Opposites attract” is the fundamental principle of nature, and more philosophically we can look to the east to Yin and Yang or to the west to light and dark side of “The Force”. Also in aviation we have contradictions.

On one hand airlines are highly regulated with very limited spot for frivolity, but on the other hand one of the core engines running aviation development since decades was look for the future and the out-of-box solutions. It seems that the opposites attract… but in this case not quite.

The same airlines, that do not want to loosen up on safety and security principles, are facing the new and liberated world of the internet. These two pieces are in fact very hard to match. When I shared for the first time this new idea of adopting BITCOIN as payment method within airline, it creates a feeling inside the organization like bringing “chaos” into “order”. In fact it was more of a fear. BITCOIN is somehow still perceived as the currency of the anonymous rebels, synonymous of the unregulated and wild deep internet world. 

Since airlines are extensively regulated mainly on safety and security issues, and they are using state of the art technology for flying, they became on the other hand kind of fossils in the merchandising and distribution of their content and product towards end consumer. In a result this is what we have: airlines would like to gain global reach and constantly complaining about regulators and authorities that they are bringing constrains and limit them to became truly global and on the other hand we have global borderless payment solution ready to use without any regulatory body or government behind it and no ownership, but somehow still steered clear of. Now is the time to look for the future.

I have no doubts, that the magnets will attract this time as well and it will happen sooner or later as The Mother nature always find a way through, constant search for balance, leading to evolution. Would you like to wait for this “evolution” or take rather first mover advantage and be part of “revolution”?