Bitcoin payment processor BitPay, Inc. thinks Bitcoin needs to better promoted, and they’ve got a proposal that they believe will do just that.

Talking to the IBTimes last week, BitPay Chief Commercial Officer Sonny Singh floated the idea of the larger Bitcoin startups and firms coming together to form what he describes as a “Bitcoin Association” that would have as its purpose to promote Bitcoin’s public image.

“I think a problem Bitcoin faces is that the largest companies…they should all kind of work together and talk more among each other,” Singh told the publication.

Name-checking Coinbase, Circle, and Xapo, Singh compared the idea to the marketing of milk, adding, “Have a Bitcoin Association. Like in America they used to have those commercials for milk: ‘Milk does the body good.’ That was a very powerful thing.”

Although described as an “over-lunch lamentation about the highly competitive and secretive approach taken by industry players…hindering Bitcoin’s progress,” Singh broke down further the idea the Bitcoin Association would be about:

“Not marketing for their company, but marketing about Bitcoin: ‘Why a normal person would use bitcoin, how it can be used.’

“Getting the word out there – working together. You’ve got all this money people have raised. Let’s try to promote the community.”

Singh took the idea further, noting that although they were competitors, Visa, Inc. and Mastercard, Inc. had worked together in the past on initiatives that have helped the entire card industry:

“In the Bitcoin industry it would be great to see Coinbase and Blockchain work together; the wallet vendors and the processors all work together.

“I mean if Coinbase or Xapo wins, that means everybody is going to win anyway probably.

“I mean, Visa and MasterCard are competitors right, but they still manage to work on some standards together.”

Solid idea

There’s no question that the idea, be it more a lamentation at this stage than a formal proposal, is a solid one as currently we see startups and other firms work independently of one another in promoting the benefits of Bitcoin where as a unified education campaign to the broader public would potentially go much further.

The verge into further sharing between companies in a similar way to credit card companies, also to be fair a great idea to benefit the Bitcoin marketplace as a whole, is less likely going to happen; the very top of the venture capital-funded Bitcoin companies are literally in a death race currently to become the Google or Microsoft of the Bitcoin space complete with zero incentive to co-operate with the very same companies they are trying to defeat.

Whether Singh’s idea ends up going further than a few drinks over lunch with the IBTimes is yet to be seen but there will be many in the Bitcoin industry who will be hoping it does.

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