Off the back of an extremely testing year for the crypto market, I’ve been very keen to get today’s guest back in the London Real hot seat, because if 2022 taught us anything, it’s that clear guidance and legislation will offer the kind of support the industry needs and help ensure the incredible innovation taking place does not go to waste.
And no man is better informed in the area of crypto regulation and what the future might hold for the industry than Christopher Giancarlo aka ‘CryptoDad’. Chris is an investor, attorney, author and blockchain technology advocate who has played a huge part in helping move the crypto industry forward, and our understanding of what blockchain technology can do for our economy.
Offering a uniquely informed perspective on cryptocurrency and decentralised finance (DeFi), Chris is without question, one of the most influential people in financial regulation and was named as such by the International Financial Law Review.
His highly sought-after views and perspective on digital assets are regularly featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and on Bloomberg, Fox News and CNBC. This rise to prominence came in large part thanks to his role as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Chris was initially nominated as a CFTC Commissioner by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed in 2014. He was subsequently nominated as CFTC Chairman by President Donald Trump, and again unanimously confirmed in 2017, during which time he testified on twenty occasions before the US Congress and the UK and European Parliaments.
It was during one particularly impassioned plea to Congress that Chris went viral and #cryptodad was born. Like any parent, Chris was deeply concerned by the lack of consideration given to this fast-growing technological wave of cryptocurrencies and DeFi, something his college-age children were fascinated by and he felt would become an inevitable aspect of life moving forward that our younger generations will come to rely on.
“Young people don’t have patience, they’ve been trading tokens since they were 14 years old, and they grew up in a networked world. They don’t understand the idea of going to a bank to move their money around.”
Chris went on to write the bestselling book ‘CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money’ where he explored in depth the future of the global economy and considers the relevant and necessary regulatory responses to the rapid pace of technological innovation we now see before us.
Chris’ central argument is that “money is too important to be left to central bankers” – and highlights the growing distrust people have for traditional financial institutions and systems. That idea of trust is something that is at the very core of crypto and DeFi and we now have the opportunity to create a more inclusive, transparent ecosystem that benefits people all over the world.
Of course, many critics will look at the events taking place in 2022 and use that as an indictment of the crypto market, but if the work being conducted by Chris and his team at the Digital Dollar Project has anything to do with it, all wrongs will be righted and the path to a truly safe, secure, and transparent digital economy will be easily navigated.
Chris founded the not-for-profit organisation with the goal of encouraging research and public discussion on the potential advantages of a tokenised dollar as a means to modernise financial infrastructure for the dollar-based domestic and international economy of the future.
In fact, of growing concern is the reality that the US is playing catchup as over 100 Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) experiments are taking place around the globe. From a digital Euro, a digital Pound and nations like Australia, South Korea, Russia and most notably China putting in the groundwork with haste. In fact, in 2023 as many as 20 nations are set to begin piloting their efforts.
Of course, China has raced ahead and the early news is worrisome for any who value privacy and freedom. But, the big question we now face, and something that is central to Chris Giancarlo’s efforts is – how do we ensure that a digital dollar is free from both government and private sector surveillance?
For Chris, it is not a question of if but how, that concerns the Digital Dollar Project. How to ensure privacy, transparency, safety and security? Chris also points out that the government is bound by the first and fourth amendments, protecting free speech and privacy, something we’ve seen Big Tech run roughshod over in recent times.
“Whoever operates it must provide privacy, in a way that China is not. China’s coin will be a surveillance coin, it will be a censorship coin. The question is – what do we, in a free society do?”
These are all fascinating questions, and daunting ones to consider. The world is fast evolving, with outdated infrastructure is rapidly falling by the wayside, replaced by bold new expressions of thought and ways of living. At the heart of these changes is the global economy shifting to a tokenised, digital version and as Chris so eloquently points out – now is the time to bring as many people to the table as possible to ensure the values of a democratic society are encoded in the digital money of the future.
Chris is a great guy and so full of knowledge and experience and given all that has happened recently I’m really looking forward to finding exactly what he thinks has changed, and what he believes will happen both in the short and long term. And for any of you burgeoning investors, this is important stuff and not to be missed.
Download clips
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- This is how you want to look at the crypto revolution
- Crypto is the next dot-com boom on the horizon
- Crypto trust takes a hit as fallouts shake industry
- Is The SEC to blame for the fallouts in crypto?
- How young and old view digital currency differently
- What the future of crypto regulation looks like
- Will digital currencies end the world as we know it
- Balancing censorship and privacy in the digital age
- Governments should not be able to surveil and censor
- You must engage with the system if you want freedom
- Building a transparent, censorship-resistant monetary system
- Our economic freedom needs to be enhanced by digital money
- The Twitter Files reveal the real dangers of government censorship
- The Digital Dollar Project and way forward
- The future of money is digital
