The blockchain/crypto week in quotes

“California needs a comprehensive statewide strategy to uplift and upskill our workers, to ensure technological advancements in AI, blockchain, Big Data, are creating jobs, not destroying them, and to reform our institutions so that more workers have an ownership stake in their sweat equity.

We will appoint a new Commission on California’s Workforce & Future of Work that will bring together leaders from labour and business – both the public and private sectors. Their assignment is this: to come up with new ideas to expand worker opportunity without extinguishing innovation or flexibility.” Governor of California Gavin Newsom 

“To date, even in this bear market, we still run a profitable business.” Binance CFO, Wei Zhou

“As everywhere else, innovation is transforming monetary possibilities. But not all changes are for the better. Some seem clearly for the worse. The right way forward is to reject libertarian fantasy, but not change itself: our monetary system is far too defective for that. We should adapt. But, history reminds us, we must do so carefully.” Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times

“Another week in crypto and another obituary for Bitcoin makes its way onto the internet.  It seems that for every evangelist that speaks about the glowing future of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin particularly, there is a commentator who speaks of its apparent death or impending doom.  In fact, there is even a dedicated page on a website now that catalogues every Bitcoin obituary going back as far as 2010 (current known obituary count currently stands at 345 for those of you that are interested).

The reason that we mention this is that amongst the cited reasoning behind the perceived problems with Bitcoin, “adoption” seems to get some regular airtime. It does make sense that if adoption doesn’t take place of this new technology then its advances and projected domination will be muted.  For all the murmurings of big companies getting involved in the space and embracing crypto, we are still yet to see a big real world statement that is hard to be avoided. However, there is a chance that all this could yet be about to change and very soon.  

There is a story (in the Philippines) about the launch by a bank of their crypto ATM machines that enable swift transfer and withdrawals into and out of fiat currency – something which no doubt will push the adoption of crypto further in that part of the world.  More pertinently for us over here in the West, there are rumours abound of the new Samsung Galaxy S10 containing a cryptocurrency wallet which is due for launch at the end of February. If these rumours are to be believed, then it signals a huge statement that will inevitably see their rivals follow suit and also make cryptocurrency readily accessible for millions of Samsung users everywhere.

The simple fact is that this move could be the first domino falling for greater mass adoption for real world use, and so whilst the end of February has the important business of the Ethereum Constantinople fork and the Van Eck ETF decision, don’t take your eyes off Samsung’s S10 launch on the 20th.” David Thomas, Director and Co-Founder, GlobalBlock

“A Bitcoin ETF is virtually certain. The only question is when. The SEC has several legitimate thoughtful concerns that the industry has to overcome but I’m confident they will. Eventually we will see a Bitcoin ETF and it’s at that stage that I will be much more comfortable recommending that ordinary investors participate.” Ric Edelman, Founder, Edelman Financial Engines

“The news that JPMorgan has established its own stablecoin is an early indication that 2019 could be the year of the stablecoin. There is a substantial amount of time and effort pouring to the development of stablecoins, and we’re excited to see where this leads.

In the short-term, this proves that the underlying technology and concept of stablecoins is viable. They are an attractive option to those who want to explore the world of cryptoassets. This development is also testament to the growing interest from traditional players and their clients.” Iqbal V. Gandham, UK Managing Director, eToro

“Bitcoin is going to be digital gold, a place where you have sovereign money, it’s not US money, it’s not Chinese money, it’s sovereign. Sovereignty costs a lot, it should.” Mike Novogratz, Founder of Galaxy Digital