Leaders from the World of Finance Express Concerns Over Bitcoin At World Economic Forum 2018

Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain remained as the topics of hot discussion at the World Economic Forum 2018 held in Davos, Switzerland. Global leaders from the world of finance shared the dais to discuss how everyone should come together unanimous decision in order to regulate cryptocurrencies.

We earlier saw how global leaders discussed blockchain - the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies and how the ongoing blockchain revolution can shape the future businesses of tomorrow. Although many leaders did share quite optimistic views about blockchain technology, they still remain a lot critical about cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular.

During a panel discussion, IMF chief and head Christine Lagarde stated that cryptocurrencies are much vulnerable in a way that they can be used for several illicit activities. She said: "The fact that the anonymity, the lack of transparency and the way in which it conceals and protects money laundering and financing of terrorism and all sorts of dark trades is just not acceptable.”

IMF and other institutions like the U.S Treasury have earlier sought for a global cooperation in order to regulate cryptocurrencies before they can have any concerning effect on the existing financial system.

In another discussion, British Prime Minister Theresa May too explained similar concerns on the use of cryptos. She said: “I think in areas like cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin we should be looking at these very seriously precisely because of the way they can be used, particularly by criminals.”

Britain’s Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer - Philip Hammond shared his views about the need to regulate cryptos while simultaneously praising the blockchain technology. Hammond said: “we should be cautious about Bitcoin and possibly we do need to look at the way we regulate this environment before the amount of outstanding Bitcoin becomes large enough to be systemically important in the global economy.” He further added that “….we don’t inadvertently constrain the potential of the technology that underlies it, the blockchain technology, which has a wider and more important application.”

The U.S Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier has stated the need to regulate cryptos and how the U.S with other countries together can play a leading role in formulating laws that prevent the use of cryptos for illicit activities and also prevent it from being the digital parallel of anonymous Swiss bank accounts.

Mr. Mnuchin said: “We encourage fintech and we encourage innovation but we want to make sure all of our financial markets are safe. My number-one focus on cryptocurrencies, whether that be digital currencies or bitcoin or other things, is that we want to make sure that they’re not used for illicit activities.”

However, as several global leaders from big financial institutions shared a common opinion on cryptos, there were other dignitaries present at Davos who expressed a positive view about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Co-Founder of wallet Blockchain, Nic Cary said: “You have to look at the fundamentals. To us, we are seeing increases in transaction volume and to me, that’s one of the first indicators that more people are using this in their daily lives and that’s really interesting to me.”

Richard Muirhead, general partner at Fabric Ventures believes that “We are still not in the kind of dotcom bubble territory in terms of the overall market capitalization.”