Ben Bernanke, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve who toughed it out during the Great Recession, doesn’t thing too much about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Speaking to a standing room only audience at the Ripple Swell conference in Toronto this week, Bernanke was widely quoted as stating;
“Bitcoin is an attempt to replace fiat currency and evade regulation and government intervention. I don’t think that’s going to be a success.”
On the subject of Blockchain Bernanke is far more positive – just like the rest of the world. Bernanke understands the current system is sloppy and slow. Distributed ledger technology may improve things for everyone. Bernanke’s benign thoughts on Blockchain should please his hosts in Toronto as Ripple is a fast growing payments processor that is utilizing Blockchain (of course).
Back to Bernanke, who is currently hanging out at the Brookings Institute as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence, he is not alone in his believe that the federal government will eventually go hot on crypto and shut it down as a threat to national sovereignty. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPM Chase, famously called Bitcoin a fraud not too long ago. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin goes higher and higher.