The chairman of the Commodity and Financial Trade Commission J. Christopher Giancarlo has once again predicted that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will flourish especially in countries with weak currencies.
The CFTC chair, while speaking in an interview with CNBC said that there will always be demand for bitcoin. “I personally think that cryptocurrencies are here to stay,” he said adding that he believes there is a future for them.
He suggested that cryptocurrency will play a bigger role in the day to day activities of people more than it does at the moment.
Giancarlo explained:
I’m not sure they ever come to rival the dollar or other hard currencies, but there’s a whole section of the world that is really hungry for functioning currencies that they can’t find in their local currencies. There’s 140 countries in the world, every one of them has a currency. Probably 2/3 are not worth the polymer or the paper they’re written on, and those parts of the world rely on hard currencies. Bitcoin cryptocurrency may solve some of the problems.”
Countries with high levels of inflation like Venezuela are already looking toward cryptocurrency. Venezuela became the first country to launch a state-owned cryptocurrency, the Petros. Also in Iran, the demand for bitcoin spiked as looming US sanctions caused its economy and currency to plunge.
Giancarlo’s remarks go contrary to the prevalent view of cryptocurrencies in regulatory circles. Most regulators focus on the dangers associated with cryptos referring to it as a bubble which would fail to meet the role of money.
Giancarlo too does not see bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency sweeping away the U.S. dollar anytime soon. He explained it would be a rather slow and thoughtful process for it to be adopted in the United States.
“There’s no question that the United States is leading in a number of areas. But there’s other areas as well of innovation where I think it makes sense for us to take a little bit more of a thoughtful and intelligent approach, just as the US Congress did 20 years ago in the early days of the internet,” he concluded.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
