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But we’re still in the early days on that. There are about 90-plus countries looking at issuing Central Bank Digital Currency. I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. The Fed just put out a white paper on that. John Beccia: Yes, the Central Bank Digital Currency. BU Today: Isn’t there talk about the Fed getting involved? On Capitol Hill, it seems there are more Republicans who support it. Here you have this decentralized, peer-to-peer system that wants to operate outside of governmental oversight, and yes, I think you had a lot more of this libertarian aspect. Everybody distrusted traditional finance. John Beccia: The original white paper for Bitcoin came out in 2008, 2009, right after the financial crisis. BU Today: Is distrust of banks the real motivation for crypto enthusiasts? With crypto, there are tools you can use to see transactions that helps law enforcement more than traditional payments activity. Cash has always been the way money launderers prefer to do laundering. There are a lot of risks, but there’s no foolproof way to avoid this.

Coinbase has a similar obligation that a bank does they have to monitor transactions, report suspicious activities to the Treasury Department. You can use that crypto to make payments or buy things online from merchants that accept crypto.

Companies like Coinbase let you exchange traditional fiat currency to cryptocurrency.
PROS AND CONS OF PLUTOCRACY CODE
a cryptographic code that allows you to transfer something of value across the blockchain. But on the flip side, because of the nature of the transaction, it’s much more secure than typing in your credit card information online-secure from hackers, identity theft. There are risks if these transactions aren’t going through licensed and regulated exchanges, Coinbase or Circle. At the end, we’ll have something that benefits consumers, businesses across the board, and takes a lot of the pain points out of traditional finance-speed, security, fees associated with transactions. I don’t think we’ve harnessed it fully to date. , you can have anybody with a digital wallet. Even Venmo-someone has to have Venmo on the other side of that transaction. John Beccia: For a long time, we’ve been talking about the need for faster payments, when you look at an international remittance and the pains that that takes, whether you send a wire or some other transaction, the fees-cryptocurrency has the promise to strip that out. What need does cryptocurrency meet that other forms of payment aren’t fulfilling? Q &A With John Beccia BU Today: We already have debit cards, Venmo, PayPal-connected to banks, but not traditional currency. BU Today spoke with him about the possibilities and pitfalls of crypto. While skeptics warn that unsophisticated investors could lose their shirts, John Beccia (LAW’01), a School of Law lecturer, sees value in well-designed and regulated digital currencies.īeccia, who teaches a class on regulating and taxing cryptocurrency, in the past has worked in traditional finance and then as general counsel and chief compliance officer for Boston’s Circle Internet Financial, which markets a brand of stablecoin-digital currency that doesn’t fluctuate wildly in value, due to a controlled supply or its being pegged to a commodity or traditional currency. Digital currencies have tanked $1.3 trillion in value since November, prompting this Slate headline: “Bitcoin Is Just a Crappy Tech Stock Now.” The crash resulted from speculators dumping crypto (and other assets, like stocks) in the belief that the economy will slow as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to choke off inflation. Photo courtesy of School of Lawįor the moment, the market sides with David. LAW’s John Beccia, who teaches crypto regulation, says digital currency can sidestep problems with traditional finance.
