Former Goldman Sachs CEO: If I Were a Regulator, I'd Be Hyperventilating at the Success of Bitcoin

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has offered his view on the future of bitcoin. He said if he were a regulator, he would be “hyperventilating” at the success of bitcoin right now and he would be arming himself to deal with it.

Lloyd Blankfein Shares His View on the Future of Bitcoin

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein discussed bitcoin on CNBC Monday. He was asked about how he sees the future of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies considering that BTC appears to be going mainstream as big firms are now getting involved.

“It could work,” Blankfein admitted. He then explained that “at the end of the day, currency is supposed to accomplish a couple of things. It’s supposed to be a medium of exchange and a store of value.”

He described bitcoin as “a store of value that can move 10% in a day, that if you lose the code or you lose the slip of paper, it’s lost forever, or if somebody takes it from you, how will you know. So the store of value element is a little bit tough.” As for the prospect of bitcoin being a medium of exchange, he asserted: “here’s a problem, you don’t know whether or not you’re paying the North Koreans or Al Qaeda or the Revolutionary Guard.”

Nonetheless, he said: “At the end of the day, if it ever got big enough to be substantial and a real medium of exchange, how could the regulators so focused as they are on anti-money laundering” not step in and do something about it. He believes that there are good reasons for monitoring who is getting paid in the financial system. “Going back to 9/11, we found out that following the money is the way you can anticipate and maybe prevent certain crimes and of course everybody talks about the illicit use of bitcoin,” the former Goldman Sachs CEO opined.

In conclusion, Blankfein reiterated that “like a lot of things, this could be workable but it will undermine the freedom and liberty and kind of lack of transparency that people like about it in the first place so that’s the conundrum that bitcoin will have to deal itself out.” The ex-Goldman Sachs CEO elaborated:

If I were a regulator, I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of it at the moment and I’d be arming myself to deal with it.