Ex-US CFTC Chair Advocates Building Financial Infrastructure with Blockchain

Former Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Christopher Giancarlo slammed handlers of the economy for taking a back seat in financial innovation related to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

Giancarlo’s Take

Christopher Giancarlo is a renowned advocate of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Christopher’s advocacy dates back to his time as Chair of the CFTC under former President Donald Trump, and at an event organized by the American Enterprise Institute this week, he said if the US does not modernize with Blockchain and crypto, the nation stands the risks of falling behind frontline innovators like China.

He noted that just as the nation’s physical infrastructure is in a bad shape, so also is the financial ecosystem. “Money is changing right before our eyes,” the former chairman said. “Like text messages and photographs, money is becoming digital, decentralized, tokenized and borderless,” he added.

He described the difficulty and time delay that still plagues transaction settlements, especially those involving securities in the US.

“It typically takes days in the United States to settle and clear retail bank transfers, while in many other countries it takes mere minutes if not seconds. And it takes days to settle securities transactions, and it’s ridiculously expensive to remit money overseas,” said Giancarlo. “It is often faster to move money around the globe by stuffing cash in a suitcase and hopping on a plane than it is to send a wire transfer,” he added.

However, he noted that things are already changing with cryptocurrencies and stablecoins which makes it possible to send money in nanoseconds, all through the year. He noted that this milestone is being championed by private innovators and not state authorities which is largely not a great move.

Embracing the Way of Innovation

The growth of digital currencies in the United States is gradually making these nascent asset classes integrate amongst a growing number of retail and institutional investors alike. Based on this, the government is poised such that banning these new forms of money like China is not an option, and the Biden administration is likely to work on sweeping regulations for key aspects of the industry this year as was demanded by crypto CEOs.

Blockchain technology is still relatively new after about 13 years, it is never too late to get started, however, the US will need to speed up to embrace the innovation that China is notably advancing in already.