The blockchain/crypto week in quotes

“This whole space is new technology into old law, and so there has to be some sort of more definitive guidance from regulatory agencies. We don’t have clarity on what that clear guidance, in plain English will be, but it needs to happen.” Hailey Lennon of Bitflyer

“There is friction when sending money from the US to the UK. As things stand, it is literally faster to grab a suitcase of cash, go to the airport and fly to London. With Bitcoin you can send it in a matter of seconds, and pretty much for free, routing around the payment rails that are very slow and expensive….Internet protocols revolutionised so many things in our lives, but they didn’t touch banking, credit cards, remittances and that’s what Bitcoin is doing.” Dan Morehead, CEO, Pantera Capital

“When the interests of protocol providers (miners or stakeholders) and protocol consumers (users) are misaligned, adversarial forks are to be expected. Blockchain developers need to build platforms that align miners, users, and engineers for blockchain technology to have any chance to disrupt enterprises in the future.” Kadena’s Co-founder, Will Martino 

“What is blockchain good at? It’s a distributed, trusted ledger that cannot be altered and allows traceability and accountability. A technology like that in an environment like construction where various people involved in the process don’t trust eachother is going to find some kind of application.” Andrew Anagnost, CEO, Autodesk

“Crypto cynics are using this current wave of volatility to knock digital currencies. Whether it is Bitcoin, or any of the current generation of coins, or not, cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Financial traditionalists view cryptocurrencies the way traditional stores used to view online retailers. But with their hands in the sand they are failing to see that cryptocurrencies have already changed forever the way the world handles money, makes transactions, does business, and manages assets.” deVere Group Founder and Chief Executive, Nigel Green

“Crypto has been so weak because most of it there’s no underlying value outside of confidence. But Bitcoin, itself, we think is going to replace gold eventually. Gold is an $8 trillion thing.” CryptoOracle partner Lou Kerner

“Starry eyed crypto fanatics have seized on policymakers’ consideration of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as proof that even central banks need blockchain or crypto to enter the digital-currency game. This is nonsense. If anything, CBDCs would likely replace all private digital payment systems, regardless of whether they are connected to traditional bank accounts or cryptocurrencies.” Nouriel Roubini

“Norway can not continue to provide huge tax incentives for the most dirty form of cryptographic output like Bitcoin. It requires a lot of energy and generates large greenhouse gas emissions globally.” Norwegian parliamentary representative Lars Haltbrekken

“The (crypto regulation) situation is similar to the gun ownership debate, i.e. guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Just like that an instrument that’s quicker, cheaper, and independent of any financial institution is not necessarily (and in most cases is not) a way to buy drugs or scam people out of their money.” Paytomat CEO, Yurii Olentyr