On 23rd Jan, in the ‘2019 World Economic Forum’ that took place in Davos, Switzerland, Jeremy Allaire the CEO of Circle emphasized on the importance of cryptocurrency and the difficulty the humanity going through the digital age without crypto. His reasons are based on the ‘decentralized nature and the resilience’ which makes crypto so important, according to the reports obtained from CCN. In the forum he said-
“Cryptography is Fundamental to the Future. […] People throw around ‘crypto’ like it is a bad thing- it is scary. […] Guess what? Cryptography is at the foundation of protecting modern society, human privacy. It is a fundamental tool of our cyber defenses. It is a fundamental tool for every corporation. […] We need tamper-proof, resilient, decentralized infrastructure if we want society to survive the digital age. […] We see this as much more transformative even than the web. We think this has a long arc that will have a far greater impact on our civic institutions and our economic institutions.”
The Circle CEO is trying to highlight the importance and dependence of the modern society on the digital infrastructure. Hence without understanding the importance of the digital currencies, survival through the digital age seems bleak.
Jeremy Allaire in his talk also tried to clear some myths and fears around the coexistence of the traditional central banking structure and the decentralized crypto industry. He clarified that it is not the case that only one can exist and that eventually, the decentralized crypto will render the central banks obsolete. He said-
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“We are huge proponents of central bank digital currency, and we believed n that for a very long time. Our view is that the creation of cryptocurrencies that are based on central bank money is happening in the private sector first. We launched USD Coin last fall. It is growing rapidly.” Allaire further talked about the versatile nature of cryptocurrencies when he said- “It can be used in lending transactions, in payment transactions. It allows you to make dollar payments, globally, at pennies and in seconds to minutes. It is a really powerful innovation.”
Despite the bear market lows, last month he predicted that the price of Bitcoin would rise again within the next three years. He feels that Bitcoin has a very important role and will eventually soar up again.
On the other hand, there were other viewpoints heard at the World Economic Forum. As per the reports from CCN, the senior advisor of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney- Huw van Steenis thinks that cryptos are worthless. On 21st Jan, he told Bloomberg-
“Traditional banks are trying to fend off the threats from these new tech platforms. […] But cryptocurrencies are not high on my worry list. […] They (cryptos) are not a great unit of exchange. They do not hold value, and they are slower.”
Sharing a similar sentiment about cryptos, the CEO of PayPal- Dan Schulman is also doubtful about Bitcoin’s ability to get accepted on a mass level. His reasons are that the cryptos are not currency and they are not convenient for the retailers to use them effortlessly. Along the same line, last year in March, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said that the cryptocurrency industry couldn’t shake the stability of the ‘global economy. He is the chair of the Financial Stability Board. According to the reports from CCN, he expressed his thoughts in a letter to the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.
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On the contrary, one of the members of the British Parliament differs from what Carney says. Eddie Hughes hopes that the UK residents should become able to pay the local taxes and other regular utility bills through Bitcoin. Last month he said to his fellow members of the Parliament that since the crypto is not going away any time soon, therefore, it is the right time for the members to get familiar with the crypto. He urged the country to start embracing the crypto so that the UK can become a world leader in the crypto industry. As per the reports obtained from CCN, he further added-
“It gets talked about a lot wherever you go in the UK, and as MPs, we have to understand it. […] You are either ahead of the curve, or you are behind the curve. We are at a crossroads, and we are about to determine our future- one in which taking the lead in this filed could prove very beneficial.”
