Blockchain is transforming everything from payments transactions to how money is raised in the private market. As it picks up momentum, will the traditional banking industry embrace this new technology or be replaced by it?
Last September, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon took a stab at Bitcoin: “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed.”
Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs echoed that thought, saying, “Something that moves 20% [overnight] does not feel like a currency. It is a vehicle to perpetrate fraud.”
Yet at the same time, according to a survey by The International Securities Association, 55% of companies polled are monitoring, researching, or developing solutions on top of blockchain.
But this very loud and public backlash against cryptocurrencies from banks begs the question: What do banks have to be afraid of?
The short answer is “a lot.”
