The stances of the traditional big players in the financial markets towards crypto was of mixed bad. But it heavily tilted on the side of skepticism and criticism. Now looks like there is a major rethinking going on especially on the parts of big players.
This week Goldman Sachs Chief executive Lloyd Blankfein gave an interview to Bloomberg where he signaled some rethinking. Blankfein was very positive towards cryptocurrencies compared to his previous rants.
He said that the cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may be the next evolution in the history of money. The paper money which is the dominant medium of exchange now has replaced earlier mediums like gold and silver. The history is not very dicey on this and it is quite a recent phenomenon. Niall Ferguson holds similar views when it comes to the evolution of money and the dude has written an entire book on history of money.
Blankfein was asked point blank about when crypto like Bitcoin can become “real issue”. He responded by drawing analogy between paper money and Bitcoin. They both have one thing in common that is they don’t have any intrinsic value. This is the point on which crypto enthusiasts build their entire argument. Blankfein at one point said why is it so impossible for the consensus currency to emerge.
He further said that it would be too arrogant to think that this is definitely to going to work. The argument against their success can’t be that they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable to many. Blankfein is a Bitcoin skeptic who earlier had derided the whole crypto rush of December 2017. Some news reports are claiming that he may run for the post of New York mayor.
He mentioned that Bitcoin is not for him in earlier interviews. But he contradicted his own points later in the interview when he said, “But there is a lot of things that there weren’t for me in the past that have worked out very well. If it was 20 years forward and it worked out, I could tell you why it worked out. But based on everything that I know, I am not guessing that it will work out”.
Goldman Sachs is known for its off and on comments on the viability of the crypto. Initially they were against it but then they came out to claim that Bitcoin is not fraud. And now they are making favorable snippets like these. Former Goldman Sacs alum Steve Bannon and Gary Cohn are already working on the crypto front.