Umar Farooq, head of JPMorgan’s blockchain unit, called Onyx, recently told London-based media outlet Financial News that cryptocurrencies were still in their nascency, drawing parallels between the growth trajectories of crypto and audio streaming.
Farooq recalled how peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster was all the rage in the late 90s despite being “clunky.”
It allowed users to connect directly to each other in order to share millions of songs for free at the time when CD sales were at an all-time high, with The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears alone selling a combined 17.7 million copies in 1999. Drowning in cash, labels were either too complacent to see the emerging digital revolution or failed to adapt quickly.
