The blockchain/crypto week in quotes

“I was very wrong. Wrong to think there was no use for a form of currency based on blockchain technology.” Economic and financial historian Niall Ferguson 

“This guy from Morgan Stanley was interviewing me last week, and I asked him, so is Morgan Stanley going to use the JPM Coin? Probably not. Will Citi use it? Will PNC? And the answer is no. So we’re going to have all these different coins, and we’re back to where we are: there’s a lack of interoperability.” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse

“Perhaps unsurprisingly the FCA report on consumer attitudes and awareness of cryptoassets shows that cryptocurrencies are still for the specialist investor given that over 70% of those surveyed had never even heard of them and certainly did not understand how they work. For those who invested in this new and growing asset class, the statistics show that the most popular reason for buying cryptocurrencies was as a “gamble”, in the knowledge that the value could go up or down.

Of further interest is the finding that only 12% of those who did not buy gave lack of regulation as a reason for this decision.  In other words, the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies is not seen as a major deterrent by those not tempted by this asset class. 

Given the FCA is currently consulting on how to bring some types of this controversial asset within the regulated sphere, today’s survey provides food for thought. Clearly regulation is only a small part of the equation for those who might consider crypto investments with other more fundamental barriers being a factor too.  We can also infer that cryptocurrencies are not about to go mainstream in appeal even when regulated. Regulation will hopefully protect less knowledgeable users and will, if anything, ensure that cryptocurrencies become a niche market product for sophisticated investors.” Jill Lorimer, Criminal Litigation Partner, Kingsley Napley

“I saw that (Stacking Sat Saturday) on Twitter…I would have participated but I have already exceeded my limit on CashApp. I can’t purchase anymore.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

“If that functionality CREATE2 had existed at the time, there wouldn’t have been a vulnerability, basically. So if you think now, OK, we introduced and sort of fixed the tooling, then wouldn’t it be the right thing to do to also fix the issues that arose when we didn’t have the tooling?” Parity CEO Jutta Steiner

“While we looked hard at the technology and security of the Neutrino product, we did not properly evaluate everything from the perspective of our mission and values as a crypto company. We took some time to dig further into this over the past week, and together with the Neutrino team have come to an agreement: those who previously worked at Hacking Team (despite the fact that they have no current affiliation with Hacking Team), will transition out of Coinbase. This was not an easy decision, but their prior work does present a conflict with our mission. We are thankful to the Neutrino team for engaging with us on this outcome.” Brian Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO, Coinbase