Bitcoin’s Pygmalion Effect: Social Entrepreneurs are a Bit-Curious in Marketing a Special Kind of Property!

Entrepreneurs enter new markets to find high-growth areas. Bitcoin is a cryptographic, software networked, complexly engineered, high energy consuming, permission-less and programmable crypto-currency. Bitcoin appears to be in higher demand among social entrepreneurs than customers resulting in a Pygmalion Effect. The purpose of the study is to examine three main questions: (1) Will Bitcoin’s marketing gain a sustainable traction as a currency of choice for daily transactions? (2) Will Bitcoin scale to become a major payment network on a global scale? (3) Will Bitcoin be replaced by multiple viable crypto-currencies? The study explored how Bitcoins Pygmalion effect will impact consumer’s privacy, purchasing-habits and business-relationships with cross border payments within the framework of crypto-currency. This study draws on the works of Reither et al. (2017), Yates (2017), Ortisi et al (2016), Bert and Chris (2017), Reijers (2016), Houy and Nicholas (2014). The research method of the study is based on the quality content analysis and primarily relied on the recent research articles, and surveys. The findings contribute to the existing discussion on the Bitcoin mining and the marketing of the cryptographic tokens and block-chain technologies. This study posits that bitcoin has value because both the Pygmalion entrepreneurs and customers believe that it has value and it is likely to be among mainstream global viable currencies. The final sections provide directions for future research on how crypto-companies need to build their distinct message and project it into the larger block-chain conversation for social entrepreneurs. Key implications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers are highlighted.