{"id":32501,"date":"2016-01-21T16:43:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T15:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=32501"},"modified":"2016-01-21T16:43:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T15:43:51","slug":"32501","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/32501\/","title":{"rendered":"WEF Discussion: Bitcoin, Blockchain and Hacking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Economic Forum at Davos is focussed on technology this year and among the first discussions was the possibility of new currencies.<\/p>\n

At the annual meeting of the world’s economic titans in Davos, Switzerland, the heads of Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and the International Monetary Fund played down suggestions that digital currencies like bitcoin could soon shake the foundations of the finance industry.<\/p>\n

Some aspects of the investment banking industry could be impacted by the march of digitalization and cryptocurrencies \u2014 including securities trading and cash transfers.<\/p>\n

The discussion came during a World Economic Forum confab whose theme \u2014 “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” \u2014 centers\u00a0on the potential of automation and connectivity to revolutionize markets and society.<\/p>\n

For bankers, the timing is apt. In 2015,\u00a0digital currency technologies made unprecedented incursions into the mainstream of the financial world, with top industry players staking out positions in the booming market. Goldman Sachsjoined a $50 million financing round for bitcoin startup Circle Internet Financial. The Nasdaq stock exchange began using a blockchain-based platform to settle trading in private startup shares.<\/p>\n

On the flipside, the burgeoning digital currency space remains largely unregulated.\u00a0Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund,\u00a0told the panel that bitcoin and related currency\u00a0innovations “could disrupt monetary policy” in the future, potentially posing a “substantial threat to financial stability.”<\/div>\n

But at present, Lagarde noted,\u00a0digital currencies have\u00a0a relatively puny market value of $7 billion, the equivalent of less than\u00a00.1\u00a0percent of the current $12.3 trillion\u00a0U.S. money supply.<\/p>\n

Technological changes beyond bitcoin, however, gave the finance executives some pause. From the digitization of monetary transactions to the increasing importance of security in a connected world, panelists saw deep changes ahead in the way banking operates.<\/p>\n

PayPal CEO Dan\u00a0Schulman, the sole “disrupter” on the panel, emphasized the security risks that financial firms face online. “Everybody’s password has been compromised,” Schulman said. “That’s just the reality.”<\/p>\n

“Financial markets are going to be hacked,” he added, echoing fears among financial regulators that increasingly digitized securities exchanges and global banking hubs could become the targets of belligerent parties on the world stage.<\/p>\n

The financiers noted\u00a0that the industry began moving into cyberspace decades ago, long before bitcoin reared its head.\u00a0\u201cOn the stockbroking side, we\u2019re really just trading electrons anyway,\u201d said Cryan, who predicted that physical cash would follow suit within a decade.<\/p>\n

But the bank executives didn’t see those seismic changes knocking them from their roosts at the top of the financial pecking order. Panel moderator\u00a0Gillian Tett of the Financial Times put the question bluntly,\u00a0asking\u00a0whether Wall Street could be like “rabbits in the headlines of the train” of blockchain technologies.<\/p>\n

“Look at how we actually make money,” answered\u00a0Gorman, whose company\u00a0participated in the largest-ever initial public offering with\u00a0Chinese online retailer Alibaba last year. “Is blockchain going to stop us from bringing Alibaba to market?”<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoins-Currency<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Economic Forum at Davos is focussed on technology this year and among the first discussions was the possibility of new currencies. At the annual meeting of the world’s economic titans in Davos, Switzerland, the heads of Morgan Stanley, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t