Circle CEO Speculates That Crypto Will Be Used By Hundreds Of Millions

Jeremy Allaire stands as the CEO of Circle, and gave some comments about when and how cryptocurrencies will start to go mainstream. He gave these comments at the Singapore Fintech Festival, claiming that hundreds of millions, if not billions, of users, will see themselves use cryptocurrency in the third generation of blockchain technology.

A Massive Jump Expected

Allaire stated this while featuring in a panel alongside Stuart Levey, the Diem Association CEO, which is Facebook’s Libra association, just rebranded. Other big names in the panel were Makoto Takemiya, the CEO of Soramitsu, and Sorojit Chatterjee, the CPO of Coinbase. This panel made a discussion about whether or not cryptocurrencies would see the next generation in world-class payment systems.

According to Allaire, digital currencies as a whole are still very early in their stages of development. However, Allaire claimed the entire space stands at the brink of a technological leap, one comparable to that of the jump from dial-up internet to broadband internet, which changed the world irreversibly.

Major prioritization In Consumer Convenience

The CEO of Soramitsu argued against this, partly anyway. According to Takemiya, the main barrier for widespread adoption of crypto comes from the user experience currently available. He explained that it just isn’t convenient enough for the average consumer, even if the technology itself already stands ready for day-to-day usage.

The counter-argument from Allair was that a good deal of the current innovation within the sector primarily focuses on consumer experience. As such, the Circle CEO predicted that ordinary people would be hooked to the advantages of crypto as the user experiences improve.

Chatterjee from Coinbase chimed in on this, stating that a so-called “TikTok moment” is needed for mainstream adoption. Meaning, the user experience needs to be so easy that anyone would like to try it.

Diem Playing Nice With Governments

Another hot topic in the panel was the discussions of mainstream regulation, and how that would impact widespread crypto adoption in the future.

Diem’s Levey chimed in on this, citing his experience working directly with the regulators. He explained that governments hold significant concerns over crypto-fueled illegal activity, thus feel the need to regulate it through this. This isn’t mentioning the potential of bypassing sanctions, as seen by attempts from Venezuela in doing so with its Petro coin.

Furthermore, Levey stated that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, pose no threat to crypto projects as a whole. Instead, he advocated for private organizations to harmonize with government initiatives. From there, the man very aptly claimed that Libra, or Diem as it’s now called, will gladly incorporate any new CBDC once it’s launched.