by Michael Keane
In 2019, cryptocurrency, and more importantly the blockchain technology behind it, has taken large steps towards societal adoption. Notably, both JP Morgan and Facebook have fully jumped in with announcements of competing currencies. We are also finding politicians becoming more and more active on the regulation side.This has a feel to it similar to the early stages of the internet.
With JP Morgan and Facebook now heavily involved, cryptocurrency is likely here to stay. Two years ago, Jaime Dimon, JP Morgan's CEO, readily came out and called cryptocurrency a fraud (CNBC story
here). Not 18 months later, in a company document, he releases the JP coin (CNBC story
here). As you can see, the only fraud was believing what Jamie Dimon said before. Good strategy that carries credibility issues. But here is the take away. Banks are there to manage value. They would be silly not to invest in the ability to manage cryptocurrencies in the best way they know how. To date, it is to create their own.
Facebook's situation is even more juicy. As has been documented in the past (even with a feature film
The Social Network), Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of stealing Facebook from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The case was settled and the brothers walked away with a settlement in the hundreds of millions of dollars. What did they do with the money? Cryptocurrency (CNBC story
here). They invested heavily in infrastructure, regulation, and the currencies themselves. Now that Facebook has entered the cryptocurrency in a big way with Libra, both the Winklevoss twins and cryptocurrency as an industry have both received a big viability confirmation (CNBC story here). It also turns out that business trumps likeability as the twins and Facebook have started to mend fences.
Politicians on the other hand are nearly standing on their head trying to catch up. They have not prepared themselves for the arrival and legitimacy of cryptocurrency. They actually were just ignorant enough to listen to Dimon's comments about it being a fraud. Ooops. You better believe work is being done now though. Hearings are ramped up (CNBC story
here). This side of things could get ugly as the theory behind cryptocurrency butts up against the theory of needing a government to regulate it.
The time for understanding cryptocurrency is here and will likely need to some time and practice. Don't be the ostrich.
** This blog is used for opinions and ideas and should not be used as a direction to act without doing your due diligence.**
