CFTC Chair is impressed by Ethereum
In an earlier article, Jonah from New York wrote about the then chair of the CFTC saying in 2018 “folks need to take it (crypto) seriously.
The CFTC is a US Government regulator for Commodities Futures Trading Commission).
In October of 2020, the current Chair said: “Let me just basically say how impressed I am by Ethereum, full stop, period.”
CFTC Chair is impressed by Ethereum
That was a statement given by the current Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Heath Tarbert during a live interview at one of CoinDesk’s virtual conferences earlier in October. On the surface, it may seem like the excitement is about ether’s increasing value but there is much reason for his excitement about Ethereum.
It’s important to note that Ethereum itself is not actually a cryptocurrency. The creators of Ethereum define it as, “a global, open-source platform for decentralized applications.” In other words, ethereum is a digital ecosystem where those who participate in it have access to the software’s source code.
From there, they can modify it however they want to create their own programs called DAPP’S or decentralized applications on the platform. Once these DAPP’s are created, they are then shared with the public and they cannot be modified, even by the person who originally created the program.
This way, people who use those apps have peace of mind knowing that no one can manipulate the apps to do something else with no prior notice.
The platform itself is powered using a cryptocurrency created by Ethereum called ether (ETH) – when people talk about buying Ethereum, they are actually talking about ether – where you can use it as a form of payment for anything on the platform. Even for digital assets like bitcoin.
Because Ethereum is decentralized, there is no need to worry about any outside forces getting involved. For more information on decentralized finance, read this previous blog post but some highlights of this system are as follows.
- It’s universal banking for everyone. To access Ethereum and all its benefits such as lending, borrowing, and saving, all you need is an internet connection. This is extremely valuable to those with no access to financial services.
- You can move money or make agreements with someone directly so that cuts out the middle man. A perfect example of this is PayPal. When you send or receive money through PayPal, there is a fee involved but through crypto, you can send your money directly to whomever.
- No government or company has control over the platform so there is no one stopping you from using services on Ethereum or from receiving and sending money.
So, although bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency with ether being second, there is a world of opportunity with Ethereum, and it’s for that reason that CFTC chairman Heath Tarbert says that it goes beyond bitcoin. In fact, in CoinDesk’s virtual conference he stated that as a regulator, he can make the analogy of “email vs the internet.” If bitcoin is email, something revolutionary but a one-trick pony, then Ethereum goes far beyond that and is more like the internet.
