Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire is known for his crypto enthusiasm. During a recent panel at the International Monetary Fund, he reiterated his belief that crypto and blockchain is a game-changer.
Speaking at the panel “Money and Payments in the Digital Age” within the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group, Allaire brought up a number of key points. Particularly, he discussed the concept “in crypto we trust.” According to him, the innate setup of cryptocurrency and its underlying technology blockchain will give way to a new type of society. This society will no longer rely on corruptible intermediaries. Instead, it will embrace “radically more private, resilient, secure, and self-sovereign forms of financial transactions.”
He went on to say that crypto and blockchain is not only about digital payments. It is about a “fundamental new infrastructure for record-keeping of important information and providing a dramatically more decentralized, resilient” basis for building solutions.
What is noteworthy is that Christine Lagarde, the director of IMF, was the one moderating the panel. Other high profiles included the CFO of Consumer & Community Banking at JPMorgan Sarah Youngwood, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Benoît Cœuré. Patrick Njoroge, the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, also joined the discussion.
Lagarde subscribed to the view that DLT is indeed disrupting the system. She cited the recent launch of the JP stablecoin and ECB’s initiatives that aim to provide instant and virtually cost-free value transfers. She admitted that today’s BTC is a completely new thing and “it is clearly shaking the system.”
However, she also posed a question about cybersecurity, casting doubt on how safe crypto really is. Allaire parried the concern by pointing out that cryptocurrency’s security bar is radically higher. In fact, it is better that “our existing financial system has.”
More adoption?
The fact that Lagarde has shown a positive attitude toward the crypto and blockchain space is in itself a big step forward. The governments and various intergovernmental organizations, like IMF, have long since become wary of the evolving crypto realm. But their opinion about it fluctuates. While Switzerland, for example, is embracing crypto and blockchain adoption, the U.S. is treating it with suspicion. The Security and Exchange Commission’s indecisive approach toward cryptocurrency and especially ETFs is a good example.
With such high profile figures exhibiting a benevolent approach toward crypto and blockchain, it is hopefully a matter of time before it becomes the norm.
Previously, Circle CEO called on the formulation of global cryptocurrency rules. In December, he also noted that in his view Bitcoin is going to be worth a lot more in the future. Currently, the crypto market is experiencing a slump with BTC trading at $5,026.
