BLOCKCHAIN
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“ Using the blockchain to underpin fiat currencies is a silver bullet solution to many problems ”
— Igor Pejic Head of Marketing BNP Paribas PF AP was the equation of bitcoin and the blockchain , which is the mechanism in the background that enabled cryptotransactions in the first place . To this day , hardly any discussion around blockchain can do without mentioning bitcoin , even if only to explain what it is .
Another major myth was that cryptocurrencies represent the end of banking – that they will make any kind of trusted institutions obselete . While the blockchain mechanism indeed fells intermediaries , it cannot obliterate all institutions managing money and its movement . At the very least you need somebody to guard your data offline , i . e . when they are not in a transaction . In the cryptocurrency world this is usually done by exchanges – that is , unless you want to store seemingly endless alphanumeric sequences in a paper wallet . But those institutions have been hacked in the past and unlike with licensed banks , users are not guaranteed they will see their possessions ever again .
This shows that while the process can be streamlined , the endpoints will still need institutions of trust . These endpoints are currently occupied by banks . Hence it is no surprise that
MAY 2019