A Coinbase executive tried to tell a crowd of bankers that crypto is the money of tomorrow and was immediately shot by an ECB director on stage

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The World According to Coinbase presents cryptocurrency in an unsurprisingly optimistic light: it’s the money of tomorrow, a more efficient, transparent, and fair form of payment.

The problem is that some experts keep saying that crypto isn’t real money.

Speaking at the MoneyLive Summit in London, Coinbases Head of Business Development for EMEA, Peter Stilwell, outlined his vision for the asset.

Addressing a gathering of the biggest names in the UK finance and banking industry, he claimed that crypto has all the hallmarks of money.

Looking back at previous iterations of the exchange of value, exchanging goods for valuables, then precious metals, before moving to paper and later plastic, he argued that network payments are just the next frontier.

Using the example of Bitcoin, he told the audience that digital currency meets all of his criteria: fungibility, divisibility, scarcity, security, and verification.

However, as he finished his argument that crypto should be considered real money, he was quickly shot down by the director of the European Central Bank’s program for the digital euro, Evelien Witlox, who was then on the scene.

In our opinion, cryptocurrencies are not money, because there is nothing behind them, she said. We have a slightly different point of view than the previous speaker.

She sought to draw a line between the crypto and the potential digital euro, saying the latter was more stable, with rates staying roughly the same over longer periods of time, rather than being subject to fluctuations.

When asked if the digital euro would make crypto obsolete, she added: it’s not for us to say, but we think it’s important to have a very stable solution with which people can pay.

Her sentiments echo those of ECB President Christine Lagarde, who said on Dutch television in May last year that she was concerned about people who do not understand the risks, who will lose everything and who will be terribly disappointed, which is why I believe that should be regulated.

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Call for settlement

Like Lagarde, Witlox suggested that more people need to understand the risks of crypto and that regulation is needed.

Coinbases Stilwell agreed, saying a number of challenges still prevent crypto from becoming a major bidding.

He explained: We are going to need regulation to protect consumers, while not stifling innovation. The events of the last 12 months have really laid bare the need for clear, strong and functioning regulatory frameworks and the need for global coordination.

It is going to be very dangerous if we end up with a massive patchwork of regulatory requirements that stifle innovation and mean that this inherently global product is unable to thrive.

Stilwell added that there are also too many people who are still being defrauded.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Coinbase was being sued for allegedly telling a man who claimed he lost $96,000 on his site to fraud that it was not the company’s problem.

According to the filing, Jared Ferguson’s account was purged just hours after it was accessed by a new device and from an IP address that had never been associated with his account.

A Coinbase spokesperson told Fortune, “Coinbase also encourages customers to take steps to secure their personal accounts and information outside of Coinbase. We educate our customers on how to avoid cryptocurrency scams and report known scams to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Stilwell continued, “As an industry, we need to continue to invest in making sure consumers feel safe and comfortable with cryptocurrencies or we’ll never truly achieve that widespread adoption.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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