CFTC chairman made warming comments about blockchain and touched on Bitcoin

Earlier this week, the chairman of the CFTC, Christopher Giancarlo, said that blockchain would have been able to transform regulators’ real-time responses to the 2008 global financial crash, if it had been in use at the time. Giancarlo was speaking during the 4th Annual DC Blockchain Summit in Washington D.C. on March 6.

Speaking on Bitcoin, Giancarlo noted:

Now, let’s fast forward to today.  Bitcoin has refocused attention on topics of back-office infrastructure, interoperable databases, and shared ledgers – and this is a good thing.  It means that efforts to upgrade data infrastructure with blockchain or DLT-inspired systems is getting the attention required to drive broader adoption. And these systems could enhance efficiencies and transparency not just in our financial markets, but also across the real-economy.

It is an interesting tone from the CFTC chairman, further providing an encouraging tone to blockchain technology in general. Giancarlo also noted that blockchain, in conjunction with “modern cognitive computing capabilities,” could have even assisted regulators in swiftly identifying the patterns and red flags signaling an intensified risk of bank failure, such as “anomalies in market-wide trade activity and diverging counterparty exposures.”