We were recently on the ground at Paris Blockchain Week Summit, getting the latest updates from key companies, exchanges and providers operating in the space.

 In contrast to the retail-heavy Bitcoin Miami a few weeks ago, this event was mainly geared towards institutional investors, providing an insight on how such groups view the future of the space. Our key takeaways:

• Despite growing retail adoption, many people on the financial side of crypto believe one of the biggest opportunities is in further institutional adoption. This makes the growing number of regulations particularly important as they provide clarity and assurance for traditional finance that is moving into the space.
• There is clear tension emerging between the increased focus on transparency, regulation and centralisation versus the traditional decentralised ethos of crypto. This came up repeatedly in the Q&A portion of talks and is likely to continue to remain unresolved, with some platforms providing increased user-friendliness while increasing centralisation and control.
• Stablecoins were a big topic, but they saw a mixed reception. Many are wary of the government regulations that would come with them, but also see the positive aspects, such as aiding increased public adoption and greater merchant acceptance, which may then spread to other cryptocurrencies.

Cameron Graham

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Cameron is Head of Platform Products at FXC Intelligence, where he focuses on pricing data within the FX and payments industry. He has written comprehensive reports about trends within the money transfer industry, and has previous experience with equity research and microfinance. Cameron has a MA in International Political Economy from King’s College London, and a BA in Political Science from The University of the South.