I wanna draw something for you, OK, just ’cause you’ll remember it.
“This is LaGuardia airport. It was built in the 1920s,” said Anthony Scaramucci, doodling rectangles on a pad of paper in front of me. I was sitting with the SkyBridge Capital founder and one-time Trump White House communications director at the Grand Hyatt in the Bahamas, where he was co-hosting a crypto-themed offshoot of the annual SALT conference in partnership with crypto exchange FTX.
I was trying to understand why Scaramucci is so bullish on crypto, when the Long Island native, as he often does, started explaining his fascination with a flavored Queens analogy. “Now you got this old airport.…You’re going to improve it over here. You improve it over there. And it’s an airport that ends up looking terrible by the time you get to 2020.”
LaGuardia, in this metaphor, is the existing financial system—a patchwork affair that’s lost whatever curb appeal it once had. “Then you got Dubai. They build the airport in 2005, and it is ab-so-lute-ly brand new, and it is spectacular.” Dubai’s rectangle, representing the new financial system Scaramucci believes will be built with blockchain, was much bigger and nicer, the way he drew it.
“So these are the Goldman Sachses and the JP Morgans and the Morgan Stanleys,” he said, pointing to those schlumpy LaGuardia rectangles. “This is all the sedimentary activity.” He drew an X across LaGuardia. “But now along comes Coinbase and FTX and Binance,” he said, pointing his pen at Dubai again. “They don’t have any of the predecessor baggage.”
And that, in the most Pictionary-basic nutshell, is what brought Scaramucci and his Wall Street kin down to the Bahamas: to fling open the gates to a flashy new financial system carrying none of the baggage of the old.
You can read the full story for free on the information's article "Boomer Bankers Bow to Blockchain Billionaires on the Beach in the Bahamas" By Akash Pasricha reporter at The Information based in New York covering crypto, venture capital and start-ups. He can be reached at akash@theinformation.com or on Twitter at @akashpasricha.
"We have the vision to transform the Bahamas into the leading digital asset hub in the Caribbean," said Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis, opening up the Crypto Bahamas conference in the nation’s capital, Nassau.
The conference hosted high end profile speakers including former U.S. president Bill Clinton and ex-prime minister of the U.K. Tony Blair. Other notable speakers include Ark Invest’s founder Cathie Wood, former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo and FTX ambassador Tom Brady.
"We have the vision to transform the Bahamas into the leading digital asset hub in the Caribbean," said Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis, opening up the Crypto Bahamas conference in the nation’s capital, Nassau.
Co-organized by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto derivatives exchange FTX, which moved from Hong Kong to establish its headquarters in the Bahamas last year, and the thought leadership forum SALT, the event will see high profile speakers including former U.S. president Bill Clinton and ex-prime minister of the U.K. Tony Blair. Other notable speakers include Ark Invest’s founder Cathie Wood, former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo and FTX ambassador Tom Brady.
The high-profile guests will discuss everything from the pace of development in the industry to regulation and how digital assets fit into a modern portfolio. But it is worth noting that the conference is happening at a time of intense market turmoil, where major assets such as Bitcoin and Ether are down more than 20% year-to-date. Solana, Bankman-Fried’s preferred asset, is down by 45%.
Ahead of the summit, the government of the Bahamas published a policy white paper, outlining the country’s digital asset strategy for the next four years. Part of the plan, which was developed in accordance with work done by global organizations such as the G20, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), includes allowing residents to pay taxes in digital assets.
In particular, the country calls out two digital-asset specific pieces of legislation, the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act, 2020 (the DARE Act) and the Financial and Corporate Service Providers Act, 2020 (the FCSP Act), which established safeguards for the custody of digital assets. Both legislations played a key role in convincing exchanges like FTX to domicile in the islands. According to the white paper, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas is already processing several other applications for registration, though no further details have been disclosed.
Additionally, the authorities pledged to work closely with the financial regulators, the Central Bank of The Bahamas, and the private sector on ways to enable Bahamians to access digital assets and promote wider use of the Bahamian dollar digital currency, the Sand Dollar. Launched in October 2020, it is one of the world's first central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). A 2021 PwC report ranked the Sand Dollar as the leading project of this kind in terms of maturity, even ahead of China’s digital yuan.
As quoted from the Forbes' Staff Nina Bambysheva's article "Crypto Bahamas Kicks Off As Country Solidifies Plans To Become ‘Leading Digital Asset Hub’ Amidst Market Uncertainty".
Nina covers cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain. You can follow her on on Twitter or LinkedIn. Send her a secure tip.
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