The blockchain/crypto week in quotes

“The important thing to remember is that the fundamentals haven’t changed. If you look at historical analysis, these bear markets tend to get deeper and deeper. We’ve had two of them recently and this one looks like it could go down to $3,350 but people shouldn’t be surprised if that happens, although it doesn’t change the long-term outlook.

We have very deep conviction on a long-term basis. The 24 hour transaction volume on the Bitcoin network is around $4.6 billion and the market cap is about $74 billion. So that’s a 16 times multiple of transaction volume for market cap. That’s very similar to Mastercard which does $11 billion worth of transaction and is valued at $180 billion.” Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, Founder and Partner, Morgan Creek Digital

“I don’t care whether tZero [one of the ventures backed by Overstock’s Medici Ventures subsidiary] is losing $2 million a month. We think we’ve got cold fusion on the blockchain side.” Patrick Byrne, Founder and CEO, Overstock

“The run-up in the market was brought on by traditional stock market traders that were looking to jump on the next hottest sector. When it started gaining significant momentum in value, the old saying came into effect: when supply is low and demand is high, the price will climb extremely quickly.

That’s exactly what happened, and the rest of the market was still not informed enough to know what the difference is between blockchain, crypto and an ICO. That lack of fundamental understanding then contributed to the resulting decline.” Lance Morginn, CEO, Blockchain Intelligence Group (BIG)

“2017 was just fun, it was almost stupid. But this year has been challenging. It sucks to build a business in a bear market.” Mike Novogratz, former Goldman Sachs partner and founder of Galaxy Digital

“One day capital-B Bitcoin will be gone, but as long as there are people out there who want to be able to move money without banks, cryptocurrencies are likely to be valued.” Edward Snowden

“As consumers become increasingly aware of their shopping’s impact on the environment, we will see grocers and other retailers make even greater efforts to improve their sustainability and ‘traceability’ of their products, including efforts to incorporate technologies such as blockchain and product lifecycle management, which assure customers of their products’ provenance. Expect to see blockchain in retail hitting the headlines in 2019.” Manu Tyagi, Associate Partner for Retail and Consumer Goods, Infosys Consulting

“While blockchain technology opens interesting opportunities, clearly it also raises legal, regulatory and policy issues that deserve our attention. We need to consider how to spread the opportunities and overcome the challenges. We can only do this if we are in full possession of the facts. We need to fully understand the technology – what it can do and what it can’t do. And most importantly for us, we need to understand what it means for international trade.

This requires an informed debate. And it needs to go beyond trade experts. Blockchain is a technology that has the potential to break silos, so we should not create silos in this discussion. We need a debate among all stakeholders – the business community, blockchain experts, government authorities, representatives from other international organisations, and many others as well. With our new publication, we are seeking to inform the debate and bring together this wider community.” World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo

“I started investing online a number of years ago and have since built up a following of over 1,000 investors through the eToro platform. I am an oddball to many of my friends – none of them trade. Instead my friends’ fathers and husbands manage their money. I think we should all be in control of and understand our money. As a stay at home mum I’m able to research the market and create a good work, life balance to suit my lifestyle.” Lena Birse, stay at home mum and a ‘Popular Investor’ on the eToro platform

“I see a strong promise in blockchain-based asset tokenization. It will have a profound impact on global capital markets.” Former Morgan Capital capital markets chief, Raj Dhanda, who this week joined the advisory board of Polybird

“Investors should be sceptical of investment advice posted to social media platforms, and should not make decisions based on celebrity endorsements.  Social media influencers are often paid promoters, not investment professionals, and the securities they’re touting, regardless of whether they are issued using traditional certificates or on the blockchain, could be frauds.” SEC Enforcement Division Co-Director Steven Peikin

“I think anyone with a high school education in economics has been a Bitcoin sceptic right from the start. These things were never going to be currencies. They’re not going to be currencies at any point in the future. They’re fatally flawed.” UBS Wealth Management Global Chief Economist Paul Donovan

“Today’s retail applications are proving that blockchain definitely lives up to its hype. Distributed ledger technology has moved from theoretical possibilities to practical uses, and the implementations we’re seeing now are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what blockchain can do for retailers. I believe blockchain has the capacity to completely reshape the retail landscape within the next five years.” FinTech entrepreneur Monica Eaton-Cardone

“Nour” Satoshi Nakamoto (possibly)