Interview with Thomas Power

Q: Cryptocurrencies are still seen as the preserve of those who truly understand them – do you believe there will come a time soon when the general public will view and use them as they do traditional off-line currencies?

T.P: The mainstream use of Cryptocurrencies is still at least four years away (2023-2026) and this is due to three key challenges – volatility, scalability, and usability. Once Crypto has addressed these, there is every reason for it to be more widely adopted and used by the general public.

Q: Many of the concerns over Brexit involve financial instability and barriers as well as political ones – do you believe that increased use of Crypto will help to remove political trading barriers in the future or just create new barriers between different ‘factions’?

T.P: Current Brexit uncertainty aside, the predicted fiat crash of 2020-2021 is when Crypto purchasing will really take off, as people lose confidence in equities and property. The crash is going to be brutal, so it is vital to preserve your cash and save money in advance of it.

Q: You have spoken about how you believe true decentralization is unlikely to be achieved as the biggest players will always eventually take control. Does this mean that Crypto can never be part of a democratic system? Is Crypto just another way for the powerful and wealthy to increase their influence? Do people actually worry about centralization if it protects their own wealth?

T.P: I believe the eventual outcome will see a blended solution of half-fiat-half-Crypto currencies, which will work as a digital version of each country’s national currency – all overseen by the national central bank.

However, inevitably the rich will get richer as they buy into Crypto at the earliest opportunity – which many have already done. In the wake of this, new money will go to new start-ups and Crypto token companies like Binance and Coinbase.

Q: You have said before that you don’t believe in self-regulation, however regulators rely upon financial firms to demonstrate adherence when investigations are required. Could intelligent autonomous RegTech solutions ever take on the role of the regulator and ensure 100% compliance, or is this unworkable in the real world?

T.P: Effective and trustworthy regulation remains critical to market acceptance. Some believe 80% of ICO start-ups are scams, which clearly shows there is still a long way to go. Any autonomous RegTech solution will need to instill full confidence that the regulations are very closely monitored, and the results can be trusted.

Q: The big tech giants (Amazon, Google etc.) are set to “eat Crypto” in your words. Do you feel that the FCA or EU financial regulators should start monitoring their actions?

TP: Yes, very much so otherwise they will dominate Crypto token incentives and evolve into full-blown Banks – paying us for our attention and every click we make on their websites with tokens like facecoin, amazoin and googoin.

We will redeem their (GAFA/FAANGS) tokens at their marketplaces and they will take control of our attention, our messaging, our social media, our purchasing, our selling and we will not be able to resist collecting their tokens and spending them in their marketplaces. Think of it as a new version of the classic Green Shield Stamps scheme in the UK – where the tokens rival currency for value in the real world.

Once people can make $1000 to $2000 each month trading their attention and time for tokens GAFA/FAANGS become real competitors and predators to every corporation in the world, taking time away from their own paid employees. This is a huge risk because ‘attention is the product’.

Thomas Power

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/thomaspower