Ben Bernanke will join Sir Tim Berners-Lee as keynote speakers at the “Swell” cryptocurrency conference October 16-18 in Toronto.
Recently our customers requested that Ripple bring together leaders in banking and blockchain who are committed to changing the way the world moves money today. Challenge accepted. Today, we’re pleased to announce Swell: The Future Is Here, taking place in Toronto from October 16-18.
Swell is attracting a roster of payments experts and industry luminaries to discuss trends, success stories of blockchain implementations and real-world blockchain use cases to meet changing customer demands for global payments.
Dr. Ben Bernanke, Chairman, The Federal Reserve System (2006-2014) to be interviewed by Gene Sperling, National Economic Council Director and National Economic Advisor under Presidents Clinton and Obama (1996-2001, 2011-2014).
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web who will present A Look Ahead Into the Future of Tech.
Swell is an exclusive, invitation-only event.
Bloomberg reports Bernanke to Give Keynote Speech at October Cryptocurrency Event.
Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, will be the keynote speaker at a blockchain and banking conference in October hosted by Ripple, the startup behind the fourth largest digital currency.
The three-day event, called “Swell,” starts Oct. 16 in Toronto, Ripple said in a statement on its website. Bernanke, who has criticized cryptocurrencies in the past, will be interviewed by Gene Sperling, the former national economic adviser under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Bernanke wrote that virtual currencies could have “long-term promise” in a 2013 letter to Congress. However, in a 2015 interview with Quartz, he said bitcoin has “some serious problems,” including its anonymity and lack of stability. Bernanke was not immediately available to comment.
Cheerleader Forecast
Here’s another opinion, written July 11, courtesy of MarketWatch and Brett Arends: Stay away from bitcoin and ethereum — they are complete garbage
On August 19 Arends wrote This bitcoin $25,000 call is more proof of the cybercurrency bubble.
I don’t have an opinion on where Bitcoin is headed in any particular timeframe. Those who predict outrageously higher numbers are making wild ass guesses reminiscent of metrics used to justify valuations in the dotcom bubble.
I do have an opinion as to whether or not Bitcoin is in a bubble. I believe it is, and I don’t invest in bubbles.
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Blockchain is a new software style. It is a type of structure. The existing distributed data base structure is very good and it gets better all the time. It remains to be seen if blockchain is better enough to meet the high expectations its proponents have. It certain will make for a lot more jobs for programmers and fill the bank accounts of consultants.
Notice cyptocurrency is now being referred to as a payment system. Why have they stopped calling it money? Because it isn’t.
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Money – depends on what definition you use, but the only one it is missing as compared to fiat is legal tender, and even that term is subjective. If for example parties write contract where a crypto currency may be used of itself at any point to settle transaction, then it has become legal tender. So really it is only missing the status of national legal tender. If you demand physical attribute, such as with say gold, then crypto currency is reduced to individual code and the ability to process those codes, and logically therefore is physically defined as the mechanical process of encyption that generates a record of transfer of ownership of any unit of code. So the question of its validity rests on that process being incorruptible and available. In comparison with physical gold it has advantages and disadvantages, it is more open to being corrupted/interrupted under some circumstances in real terms (gold may be adultered also etc.), but it is more independent/secure in distance transfer in some other ways. So you could say it has some, if not equal, physical merit in comparison to gold. It cannot equal gold in some ways, but is able to surpass it in others, in all fields of definition.
After that it is a choice of personal confidence and usability.
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“So you could say it has some, if not equal, physical merit in comparison to gold.”
Is not meant to imply it might have equal physical merit, although I could picture a real circumstance where it would, in terms of acceptance by a counterparty as money…someone prefering a physical code to physical gold. I would think gold would normally be more secure as a store of value though, therefore more in line with a full definition of money.
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I am somewhat confused by your musings. Gold is not to be used as means of exchange; the paper currency backed by gold is. And because the amount of gold is limited as well as it’s amount grows slowly but steadily, so the amount of paper in circulation is limited. Contrast it with the current system where the amount of money in the system is only constrained by the demand for credit with the interest rate being the only brake (currently the brakes have been removed).
In the gold based system, the banks would have to accumulate enough deposits or sell bonds at attractive interest/yields to attract savings which they can lend. This obviously restricts debt, and thus instant economic growth, delays consumption and so on. The main benefit is a more stable, less roller-coaster economy. But that goes against instant gratification, so we cannot have it, can we?
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Sorry if I confused… maybe I should have started
“Money – depends on what definition you use, but the only one CRYPTO is missing as compared to fiat is…..”
Gold or true and accepted representation of it is the same difference really.. in times of trust and transparency at least.
Crypto can be gold like, but only gold has the near absolute guarantee of being limited in supply.
I think diversity of money/currency is good , but we get on to legal tender issues, so maybe dollar as legal tender ( have to accept if offered) for price reference but legal also to pay in currency of choice. Taxation is the other “question”, though there is one simple answer to that also. Haven’t thought through that side fully yet.
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“It cannot equal gold in some ways, but is able to surpass it in others, in all fields of definition.”
So physical for example, crypto cannot equal gold in durable value..a piece of gold will be where you left a decade or more ago and unchanged, but it can exceed gold in being able to be easily privately transferred long distance… the physical code in your wallet travels to someone elses across the world.
Bitgold is somewhere between the two, fiat is generally a slow devaluation and not as durable outside the system but otherwise normally stable (until whatever).
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If it is a medium of exchange and a store of wealth, why isn’t it money? Anything can be money if agreed upon by its users.
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Money holds value, currency does not.
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Semantics. Money is an agreed upon store of value and medium of exchange. Currency is designated by government to be money, which, since we agree to use it, is the same thing.
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Value is subjective, but money (as in capital sense, gold) has a common subjective value that is understood without need for any further allocation or explanation. People don’t always like the word intrinsic, but I suppose you could say people intrinsically value it or find value to it.
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One of the many requirements for the usefulness of “money” is that its “value” be relatively constant over time (ie not volatile).
Gold is pretty volatile at times (daily, weekly, monthly), but it does tend to maintain it’s value over very long periods of time (decades) relative to what it can buy you (ie a suit, a car, a house).
The US dollar is less volatile than gold over short periods of time, but like all fiat currencies, it’s value declines over longer periods of time (ie inflation). While not perfect, Government mandated paper currency is still the most practical form of money for our present system.
Crypto currencies presently suffer from several problems, the biggest of which currently, is volatility. Any currency that that can rise or fall in value 25% in one day, is not yet useful for the vast majority of users in our current system. However it is extremely useful for some, and it is entirely possible that it will become the dominant accepted currency in the future. Many people are embracing crypto for many reasons, but one of the reasons is speculative, as the volatility presents an opportunity tor some to profit from their speculation. (just as others speculate in fiat currencies, and gold).
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The volatility is a question of market depth, and market depth is a reflection of choice (wideness) of use… and wideness of use is based in great part on stability, so it is all part of the struggle of establishment. Fiat has the hand of central banks and government policy, gold has tradition, crypto has the publics private utility.
We will see I guess.
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Well said Crys. Volatility has increased in just about every area of finance, including currency. Thirty years ago a currency (such as the US dollar) might move 2% per year vs another currency (such as the Canadian dollar). Today these currencies can move 2% in a day. This volatility causes problems for businesses who are trying to operate amid this volatility. Stability in currency is necessary, and today, there is less stability among all types of currency.
One of the few things that is stable today, is interest rates. Another “fairly” stable thing, is economic growth; 1-2% US, 2-3% many other countries. We live in interesting times, full of complex problems.
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Realist,
That is not correct. Vol is now lower in most things than it has been historically. Currency vol was always around 10%+. Lower than that right now. Early- mid 80’s were a crazy volatile time for currencies, Yen was all over the map, early 90’s brought deval in krona, argentina,mexico.. and equities today are a yawner compared to anything I have ever seen. Energy is also a yawner, particularly nat gas which used to be nuttier than nutty (even a hurricane in the gulf can’t move it these days). Fixed income.. always boring – now even more boring.
Oh, bitcoin is volatile… stupid product – but would be fun to trade.
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@ Realist – volatility of most markets is low compared to crypto currency which was the example. I think that is pretty much average now for markets historically speaking, but at the same time more complex and more managed, in other words not a fair reflection of the market itself. Sure some will say the market is the market and that is that, but if you look at a market where its price is set there will be no volatility at all – that does not mean people experience less volatility in some form, say real prices or returns, or even the ability to invest for profit or understand value where it is most relevant to them.
Here is a study on historic volatility, you would have to draw your own conclusions…but volatility does not seem to be decreasing either, on a longer scale at least…though I’m no statistician.
Search up DanielssonValenzuelaZer2015-1.pdf
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Ripple?
Isn’t that what Fred G. Sanford drank?
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…or one of The Deads best songs…
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What he means by the below is that the elite want to control it’s value (stability) and the users.
Bernanke……..in a 2015 interview with Quartz, he said bitcoin has “some serious problems,” including its anonymity and lack of stability. Bernanke was not immediately available to comment.”
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The Blockchain is here to stay and will revolutionise digital transfer of ownership.
Bitcoin – would steer clear.
If I’ve understood capabilities correctly, a Dark Web blockchain based market backed by gold could probably be very useful to organised crime and terrorist organisations. Reliable transfer of ownership of gold down to ounces, anonymous, cross border. Cooperating vaults would be needed. Something along those lines could be a nightmare for law enforcement. There could even be smartphone – smartphone transfer using peer-peer wifi if I understand it correctly. No need for suitcases of cash. Transfer of gold to cash would be a weak link.
Reliable digital transfer of document ownership is a big opportunity outside of currency. It can change such areas as property conveyancing etc.
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Full technical explanations and the flaws of this farce are at the Denninger link I posted below.
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I am still waiting for his final morsel of wisdom: how to run a large, and prosperous economy to the ground.
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I can honestly say I do not understand block chain software or digital currencies in general. I also believe most people do not understand it at all. It is befuddling financial consultants and bankers alike. Only a true visionary can see its potential. Those who say not to trust it are mouthing the same thing people say to any emerging world changing technology. This may be the the biggest thing since money was invented or it may be a dead end. No one knows for sure. That is why Bernard is a keynote speaker. Not only is he being paid well but more importantly people like him are hedging their bets just in case.
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A key point to remember, is that Bitcoin, and with it all distributed blockchains (at least in the “money” realm), is less than a decade old……..
The mere fact that the combination of cryptography and a pervasive network, CAN create a widget that is cheaply transferable, mathematically provable to be scarce, and sufficiently distributed to resist takeover by any one, even powerful, party; means cryptography WILL be employed that way.
The currently preeminent implementation, Bitcoin, already possesses qualities that in some areas improve on all pre crypto currency implementations. Which pretty much guarantees that someone will prefer it to non crypto alternatives, for at least some uses.
As the math, and people’s experiences with and understanding of it, improves; more hitherto unavailable qualities will be incorporated as well. Strong anonymity guarantees being one. This will sway more people to investigate incorporating ever improving crypto currency for at least some uses. Buying dope, and donating to Obama if you are a gun maker executive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Firearms_of_Montana) being examples.
As will improved infrastructure surrounding the new currencies. Such as less hack prone devices in which to store them, “Operating systems” that are more limited, hence closer to be “proveably un crackable.” (People will demand very different OS security from a device storing their life’s earnings, than from a device used mainly to shop on Amazon, read blogs and watch porn.)
The whole phenomenon is less than a decade old! Of course there will be teething pains! But anonymity, guaranteed scarcity, resistance to theft-by-debasement as well as taxation and “legal” confiscation, and the ability to engage in voluntary transactions (again, anonymously if desired) across arbitrary “sanction” and other nonsensical lines some junta erects for their own benefit, are just too valuable, for too many, for these currencies not see first some, then increasing, use.
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“I’m not against bitcoin. For you! Just personally uncomfortable with the idea of losing one’s net worth to a mouse click from the Dark Web.” – James Woods
Digital ‘Currencies’ Are ALL A Scam
by Karl Denninger
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/06/17/digital-currencies-are-all-a-scam/
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I don’t own crypto for some of the reasons mentioned ( I would not put money in that I was not prepared to lose, for example) but some of the views mentioned are flawed also. I won’t argue it out here, but it is a speculative value not a Ponzi, it is expandable by fractionalisation , the hurdles of cost can be crossed etc. . I encourage the venture, but am not investor, speculator, have no need to use, and prefer storage somewhere more secure…. not to put anyone off as long as they realise the value is still very speculative, some find that a positive, as well as the ideals behind crypto being worth joining.
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DEFINITIONS:
1) “Investment”: What you are screaming to anyone and everyone that will listen > “I made ALOT of money on that one !” (genius time)
2) “Speculation”:
a) What you tell everyone but yourself > “Man, I am SOOOO glad I didn’t dump any of my money into that piece of crap !”.
b) What you know to be the absolute truth > “I must be so F’ing stupid to have dumped my money into that crap. How can I prevent my wife from finding out !!!????
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Mish I think it’s interesting the debate that goes on all the time as we all try to define what exactly is real money. Over the centuries just about anything of real value could be used as money by a person who is starving to death. Years ago I remember after the tsunami hit, some of the poorest people in the world were forced to sell some of their children to gain access to food to keep the rest of their family alive. Most of the discussion today, of course, has to do paper currency, precious metals and cryptic currencies, with none of three being perfect despite what gold bugs say. Years ago when the dollar was backed by gold, IMO that was not absolutely perfect but about as close as we could ever be. Now everything is held together by confidence alone despite record worldwide debt,will not last much longer. At that point the globalists will takeover after cash is banned, with their own digital currency which they will control in the New World Order.
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well stated
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Fiat is already not far off crypto currency, except the most part ( non cash) of it is secured by central registry as opposed to dispersed private registry, plus the central banks have the ability to expand supply via debt. So the final step would be more like outlawing existing crypto and absorbing its acceptance while insisting transactions take place under government oversight for reasons of ” security ” etc. . Whether what is going on now is a sponsored trial venture, or if government is looking to latch on to a new technology that is disruptive to its own authority, to me is hard to tell. I don’t think a NWO will just emerge the way suggested without a lot of grief first, and quite possibly we are now at a phase where it enjoys the maximum of power that will ever be resignedly accepted by societies. If other modern realities of governance are an example, we should expect a further push to be made regardless of opinion or possible consequence.
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This would be the currency the Christians would say will be backed by the AntiChrist with the mark of the beast!
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If we had sound price discovery and a return to reasonable interest rates above 5 % this crypto currency phenom would be non existent . It is a product of the ” search for yield” meme perpetuated by ZIRP. Their are many crypto currencies coming on-line diluting the supply. As a peer to peer global payment system it is unrivaled . And remember you need
to buy a virtual currency with “real” currency . It is bought and sold in a quasi exchange environment that must have bid/ask algorithms.
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If the government always has the most powerful encryption, then it can eventually crack the currencies. If the encryption is distributed (recall the government worried about terrorists using encryption) and the government cannot crack it, then they can never know what is going on with the cryptocurrency unless it exits the system. An increasing amount of business is conducted virtually and that business can also be encrypted. As far as the govt is concerned, it could be in a position where it can’t even estimate how much economic activity is taking place online. The state will once again shrink because it the cost of monitoring all economic activity is prohibitive.
The flip side is they can crack the encryption or force everyone into their digital currency. Then all activity is monitored by them and they can selectively punish even the smallest individual for minor “violations” such as not clapping loud enough for the dear leader. China is building such a system. The “social credit” system could impact your mortgage interest rate, whether you are allowed to fly on airplanes or ride on trains, and will use inputs such as your social media account.
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The thing is, the blockchain isn’t encrypted. Everyone can download it and view it.
https://bitcoin.org/en/download
That’s the whole point of the thing. The only reason it is anonymous is because it’s just a bunch of number strings. If you happen to have part of the formula that will “solve” one of the number strings you can lay claim to it. You do this in a wallet. The wallets can be just about anything that holds your half of the formula, including just a print out of the hash file, or a QR code if you don’t feel like manually typing all those numbers in.
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Monero.
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Somebody is paying Bernanke’s obnoxious speaker fee.
If you are not sure who that somebody is, check the list of conference attendees. But there are always a list of Bernie Sanders and Obama supporters that believe in free lunches and perpetual motion machines.
No comment on bitcoins or tulip bulbs… some people made money mining gold in the 1800s California gold rush. But the guys selling pick axes and “secret maps” made a lot more than the people digging (and with less risk).
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Everyone loves a good conference.
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Cryptocurrencies are not currencies they are consumer goods like beanie babies and baseball cards.
How is a cryptocurrency made?
It is mined.
What is needed to mine? Electricity.
Electricity costs $X and then the crypto sells for >$X.
If this is how currency works, then why not create infinite amounts or infinite different types of cryptos and make everyone wealthy?
Free lunches do not exist. They also violates thermodynamics as it becomes perpetual motion (turn X into 2X and then buy more X to get more 2X).
That is why they are consumer items. They are currently a fad and will return to the marginal cost of production.
Cryptocurrencies will lead to the greatest hyperinflation of all time (vs fiat currencies, even if they lose purchasing power).
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