The U.S. government has hired a new comptroller of the currency, and his name is Brian Brooks. What makes Brooks so interesting? He’s a bitcoin and blockchain bull and a former attorney for Coinbase. How ironic that he would work in an administration headed by Donald Trump, who in the past, has expressed negative opinions of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Brian Brooks: Blockchain Gives Us Great PowerIn a recent interview, Brooks explained that he sees blockchain as a major turning point in the nation’s history. He believes the technology can be used to potentially improve many separate enterprises and he’s convinced that further blockchain development is the answer to many of the economic problems the country is presently facing. He states:Blockchain has the potential to connect up, in
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The U.S. government has hired a new comptroller of the currency, and his name is Brian Brooks. What makes Brooks so interesting? He’s a bitcoin and blockchain bull and a former attorney for Coinbase. How ironic that he would work in an administration headed by Donald Trump, who in the past, has expressed negative opinions of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Brian Brooks: Blockchain Gives Us Great Power
In a recent interview, Brooks explained that he sees blockchain as a major turning point in the nation’s history. He believes the technology can be used to potentially improve many separate enterprises and he’s convinced that further blockchain development is the answer to many of the economic problems the country is presently facing. He states:
Blockchain has the potential to connect up, in a decentralized network, all kinds of data. It can create large, friction-free, decentralized networks of people. This is huge and it offers great promise in blockchain and crypto.
For one thing, he’s confident in the speed of blockchain, and says that many banks and financial institutions are still using old and slow methods of transferring money between accounts. He was particularly negative towards SWIFT, which he criticized for its present transaction times. He explained:
It takes three days if you’re trying to send money from the U.S. to Europe… on the SWIFT network. Your money is at risk during that period, and even when the money is transmitted, foreign exchange fees are incurred, but a digital representation of value on both sides of the transaction can eliminate that friction and those costs.
Brooks was also critical of his own country and the Federal Reserve, explaining that it has fallen behind regions like Europe when it comes to issues such as transaction speeds. He states:
The U.S. has lagged behind the U.K. and other countries in terms of faster payments. It took the Fed ten years to get where they are with the Fed’s version of faster payments – versus blockchain, which is instantaneous and immutable… You’d be shocked. There are certain O.C.C. regulations that require that certain things be transmitted by fax and require banks maintain a fax number. Those were written at a time when faxes were a cool technology. Now, they’re mandates.
The Government Should Learn Its Place
Despite all this praise for blockchain and the cryptocurrencies that utilize its technology, Brooks is against the idea of the U.S. following in China’s footsteps and creating its own digital currency. He states:
I’m not in favor of a government-created token. I just don’t think that’s the role of government, quite honestly, but I think that the Fed and the SEC need to be putting up frameworks of what that digital currency needs to be.
Brooks “comes into power” under President Trump who in the past, has stated he’s not a fan of bitcoin and doesn’t like to invest in things that are based on thin air.