Heath Tarbert, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, believes that most of the future financial system may exist in the form of blockchain.
Tarbert made this point in an interview with the crypto media Coindesk. In the interview, he discussed his views on cryptocurrency regulation and believed that due to the decentralization and other special properties of cryptocurrencies, they need to adopt prudent supervision. Measures.
He said, “Our financial and economic systems have been rebuilt outside of the current non-crypto systems, comparable to the’Renaissance’. In less than ten years, people have effectively established incentives and trust in the field of Crypto assets. The entire economic system is fascinating.”
Tarbert said that he is also very interested in decentralized finance (DeFi), and believes that at some point in the future, a large part of the entire financial system may exist in the form of blockchain. He thought it would be “revolutionary.”
Tarbert took office on July 15 last year. He admitted that although he was familiar with Bitcoin and Crypto assets before joining the CFTC, he “soon discovered that this is a rapidly changing field.” Although many aspects of cryptocurrency and financial technology are not currently under the jurisdiction of the CFTC, some new products may enter the field of derivatives. Therefore, he needs to understand more than Bitcoin.
He mentioned, “My view is that to become a successful CFTC chairman, it means that to supervise the derivatives market, one must have a keen understanding of the underlying market. Therefore, I try to learn as much as possible in various fields. Go to the farm, go to the feedlot, to learn about cows and wheat. I am learning about oil and I am also learning about encryption.”
A few months after he joined the CFTC, the CFTC declared Ethereum as a commodity and allowed the first batch of Ethereum-based futures products to enter the market. The next challenge is to establish a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency and derivatives market in the next few years.
He mentioned, “Part of the regulatory framework will be based on principles, and the other part will be based on more specific rules. This can ensure innovation, and it can also bring flexibility to market participants and ourselves, because we don’t want to build a system that will soon become obsolete. And there may be a regulatory framework for customer protection issues.”
Due to the borderless nature of cryptocurrency, Tarbert believes that the United States should reach agreement with other countries in terms of regulation. In this regard, there is no essential difference between cryptocurrency and traditional commodities such as wheat. He emphasized that, like the Banking Basel Agreement, international standards around encryption technology are “very important to this industry.”
Author Liang Che