Crypto’s role at the annual meeting was a signal of sorts. The industry’s presence was loud, visible and intended to say, “Hey, we’re here!” from the moment you stepped off the plane in Zurich. Matthew Blake, the head of the future of financial and monetary systems,, spoke to me about what he’s seen from the industry this year and how he sees industry engagement moving forward. This interview has been edited for clarity.Nikhilesh De: Thank you so much for joining us.
We are not a static organization, and in essence, I would if I can, make a prediction. I think we will see an increasing appetite to have crypto-related topics on the agenda. We are building toward that trajectory. I think there's a tremendous amount of potential there. We've studied various aspects of blockchain technology in the context of capital markets. We've done a good amount of work on that front over the years.
Yeah, we are. Everything that we do from a thematic and research basis has a multi-stakeholder property to it. That's kind of core to how we operate, and the answer is, absolutely. I think one of the key areas where we've seen keen interest from central banks around the world is on the [central bank digital currency] basis.
You can sense the debate, and a bit of the ferocity of the debate, around proof-of-stake versus proof-of-work. But also, I think it came through a theme that I keep repeating here, which is that as human beings, we focus on the here and now, but this is very much an evolving story. Different consensus mechanisms, what we have and what we're proving is what we're aware of today, three years, five years, 10 years down the line, most likely that there'll be many more.
wef ShytoshiKusama shibainuart gossipshib GERMTeam and ShibaEcosystem working together would be amazing!
wef nikhileshde THIRTEEN YEARS! Y'all have had THIRTEEN YEARS to prove you were anything but an unregulated gambling scheme. There's NOTHING that crypto provides that other companies/ services don't do better, faster, cheaper & with less harm to the planet. JUST GIVE IT UP ALREADY!