Goldman Sachs boss: don’t write off cryptocurrencies

“In this school of saying, gee, because (cryptocurrency) sits uncomfortably with me, so this cannot happen, that would be arrogant,” he states. “Why couldn’t you have a consensus currency?”

Blankfein suggests that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could become widely used as was the case with mobile phones. “I remember when they first came out with cellphones and thinking, who the hell is going to carry these things around? Besides, there are 10 phone booths on every corner. This is a fad, nobody’s going to carry a cellphone. So I just passed on the whole thing … turns out to have worked.”

He doesn’t believe cryptocurrencies will be a problem for Wall Street, however. “It’s painful to somebody who put their entire networth into cryptocurrency, but I don’t worry about them in a systemic way. It’s not an issue at this point. People are passionate for it, passionate against it.”

Blankfein points out that in the past fiat currency has morphed in many ways. “I’m saying if you go through that morphing, why couldn’t you have a consensus currency?”