Brian Quintentz is a Commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This post is based upon Commissioner Quintentz’s recent keynote address at the DC Blockchain Summit. The views expressed in this post are those of Mr. Quintentz and do not necessarily reflect those of the CFTC, his fellow CFTC commissioners, or the CFTC staff.
Good afternoon and thank you for that very kind introduction. As an alumnus, I’m always happy to be back at the McDonough School of Business. It’s great to be with you here at the DC Blockchain Summit. I want to congratulate Perianne and the Chamber of Digital Commerce on hosting such a fascinating event with such robust participation by the DLT and cryptocurrency community. What you have accomplished in advocacy and connectivity in such a short period is incredible.
Before I begin, let me quickly say that the views contained in this speech are my own and do not represent the views of the Commission.
I want to start with a story about my childhood. I have a fraternal twin brother. Growing up, we were pretty competitive—academically, socially, and athletically. One of the sports we both played was tennis. As some of you know, amateur tennis at the juniors, high school, and college level is kind of a unique sport in terms of its rule enforcement. The players themselves act as the referees. But if you think about the landscape of competitive tennis, as the seriousness of the sport and the consequences of winning increase, and the players become professionals, umpires ultimately are called in to officiate the game. The incentives become too skewed for a player to make the right call in a tight situation. I believe we are at that same point with regard to cryptocurrency exchanges where millions, if not billions, of dollars’ worth of products are transferred on a daily basis. Some level of independent officiating is now required.
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