The cryptocurrency and blockchain sector must actively call out crypto demagogues, do more to prove cynics wrong and push for regulation.

So said Nigel Green, the Founder and Chief Executive of financial advisory organisation, deVere, in an address to The Delta Summit, Malta’s official blockchain and digital event, which took place this week.

Speaking to the press afterwards, he noted: “Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have taken the world by storm. This is because they have the enormous, real potential to improve society, how we handle money, how we do business, and how we govern ourselves. But for this potential to be fully realised, we need to build trust. Building trust is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry.”

Maintaining the status quo

Yet trust in the sector is routinely compromised by crypto demagogues who make wild and unsubstantiated claims and who sell themselves out to the highest bidder, regardless of facts and consequences. Crypto cynics are also a major problem.

“These are those high-profile financial traditionalists and institutions, who are likely to either have vested interests in maintaining the status quo or have no understanding and/or no desire to understand the unprecedented shift taking place right now.”

“Their dismissiveness must be proved misguided by showing them that these hugely exciting, far-reaching developments are legitimate, here to stay and are beneficial. In addition, a sound and enforceable regulatory framework will enhance trust by giving investors even more confidence and protection,” Green argued. “In short, the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector must now actively call out crypto demagogues, do more to prove crypto cynics wrong, and push for regulation.”

People across the world are increasingly looking for alternatives to fiat money, traditional financial services, and centralised agencies and governments. “As such, once we have established trust, the environment will be ripe for the phase of mass adoption and investment,” he concluded.