The blockchain/crypto week in quotes

“It’s way too expensive to do domestic payments. It’s way too slow, and that hurts consumers and businesses. It stifles innovation, and it’s far too expensive to send money cross-border, and there are huge financial inclusion issues related to that and costs related to that. So, while we are trying to address all these issues, we have to absolutely acknowledge the problem that they’re (Facebook) trying to solve. And if it’s not this, we’d better have some answers for what else it is.” Bank of England Governor Mark Carney 

“PayPal is f****d!” BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes

“Facebook cannot go forward without there being broad satisfaction with the way the company has addressed money laundering, all of those things. The number of concerns that I list at the beginning, data protection, consumer  privacy, all of those things will need to be addressed very thoroughly and carefully.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

“This is a reaction that anyone who believes in Bitcoin would expect – the highest government official on the planet in POTUS openly condemning cryptocurrencies as a vehicle for crime in order to protect the USD. There’s no hiding from the fact that cash and even gold and silver have been utilised for crime, completely untraceable, for thousands of years – yet cryptocurrencies are transparent in their very nature.

Major banks are already integrating blockchain technologies to improve their processes and many are using forms for cryptocurrencies for cross border payments, increasing the speed and security, and reducing the cost of such transactions, which President Trump has not highlighted via Twitter.

Bitcoin was created to provide anyone with a way to manage their own finances, make their own payments and store their own funds securely, all without central authorities or governments making huge profits, storing and selling data and being in complete control of our financial lives. The opinion of President Trump is no surprise as Bitcoin continues its strong position.” temtum Founder and CEO, Richard Dennis

“I want to give you my personal assurance that we are committed to taking the time to do this right” David Marcus, Head of Facebook’s crypto project, Libra

“We’re thrilled to see Litecoin become the official cryptocurrency of the Miami Dolphins. This collaboration propels Litecoin in front of an audience of millions of people around the world at a time where adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to gain momentum and the ecosystem is able to support real world use cases in ways previously not possible. We see this as a powerful way to raise awareness and educate people about Litecoin and cryptocurrencies on a tremendous scale.” Charlie Lee, Creator of Litecoin and MD of the Litecoin Foundation

“London is – for the time being at least – the world’s largest and most important financial hub. But its dominance is fading as Brexit-Britain flounders in uncertainty. The growing cryptocurrency market has already provided tangible economic benefits to other major economies. Post-Brexit Britain will be uniquely placed to go even further and by embracing it, it could reboot the UK’s financial services sector.” Nigel Green, CEO, deVere Group

“The nature of distributed ledger technology, as well as the characteristics associated with digital asset securities, may make it difficult for a broker-dealer to evidence the existence of digital asset securities for the purposes of the broker-dealer’s regulatory books, records, and financial statements, including supporting schedules. The broker-dealer’s difficulties in evidencing the existence of these digital asset securities may in turn create challenges for the broker-dealer’s independent auditor seeking to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence when testing management’s assertions in the financial statements during the annual broker-dealer audit.

We understand that some firms are considering the use of distributed ledger technology with features designed to enable firms to meet recordkeeping obligations and facilitate prompt verification of digital asset security positions (e.g., regulatory nodes or permissioned distributed ledger technologies).  Broker-dealers should consider how the nature of the technology may impact their ability to comply with the broker-dealer recordkeeping and reporting rules.” The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)

“It’s out of the question to allow them (tech giants like Facebook) to develop in a regulatory void for their financial service activities, because it’s just too dangerous,. We have to move more quickly than we’ve been able to do up until now.” European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure

 “At the end of the day, there are many people who do believe in it (Bitcoin) and if it continues and grows, then I would probably have to be a buyer and be involved with this.” Mark Mobius, Co-founder and Partner, Mobius Capital Partners