The economists and FinTech gurus still seem to be divided on Bitcoin. While this divided opinion was always present, it seems to be exacerbated by the recent revelation of Mike Hearn about Bitcoin and its flaws. His prophecy of Bitcoin heading towards failure has definitely gained some extra attention.
Recently, the same views were echoed by representatives of banking and FinTech industry at the World Economic Forum meet held at Davos, Switzerland. Some of the bankers express their support towards the Bitcoin technology while there were others who were pessimistic about the digital currency and its underlying technology. Overall, most of them seem to be more biased against bitcoin as a digital currency. Representatives from banks and FinTech companies that are already invested in Bitcoin technology as part of the consortium defended their move by saying that Blockchain technology, even though is still in its nascent stages holds a lot of potential that can drastically bring down costs while ensuring greater compliance towards regulations.
Some of the attendees at the World Economic Forum event included Andrea Orcel – President of UBS Investment Bank, Willem Buiter – Chief Economist at Citi, James Gorman – CEO and President of Morgan Stanley, John Cryan – Co-chief Executive of Deutsche Bank, Cathy Bessant – Chief Technology Officer at the Bank of America, Garry Lyons – Chief Innovation Officer at MasterCard etc. The discussion about Bitcoin and Blockchain technology stemmed from the recently published white paper on digital currencies by the International Monetary Fund. The white paper calls for the representatives from the banking and FinTech industry to familiarize themselves with emerging technologies in the sector which includes Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.
However, the global body in its report also goes on to mention that at present, digital currencies like bitcoin make only a small fraction of the whole world’s economy which is a insignificant number. But the rapid growth in cryptocurrency sector definitely makes it interesting and worth following, lest they miss the digital revolution bus. While representatives from UBS Investment Bank, Bank of America and MasterCard were vocal about the advantages of digital currency technology, others didn’t seem that excited about the changes it could potentially bring to FinTech and banking sector.
Apart from digital currencies, the World Economic Forum leaders also discussed about other major happenings in the world economy including the falling Chinese economy, refugee crisis plaguing the European Union, Britain’s role in EU and last but not the least, possible dissolution of the European Union itself.