Timothy Geithner Timothy Geithner, the Former Treasury Secretary, was asked by Fusion’s Jorge Ramos about bitcoin, and if he would invest in the nascent digital currency: “No, I wouldn’t,” he said, when Ramos asked him to acquire bitcoins. Ramos asked Geithner if bitcoin had value.
“It depends what your objective is,” he added. “As a way to save money, as an investment vehicle? No. It’s a very volatile thing. As a way to make payments? It’s got some risks because its value fluctuates hugely over time. So, it’s got a lot of challenges.” Geithner, always rigorous, admits: “I’m the wrong person to ask,” Geithner said. “I don’t think I really understand it.”
But Geithner could help Bitcoin. It’s just, he probably won’t. Some Bitcoin analysts claim that, with a majority of mining power located in China, a volatile amount of the Bitcoin network is dependent upon nodes behind The Great Firewall. That’s one uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin.
Yet, there are numerous experts, who have deep experience in Chinese and Asian affairs, who could help create an action plan should China decide to crack down on Bitcoin mining. This would create a crisis in Bitcoin production and undermine the network’s security. One of these experts might be plenty maligned by Bitcoin’s hardcore followers: Timothy Geithner.
Blythe Masters, former “most powerful woman on Wall Street” and blockchain technology firm Digital Asset Holdings CEO, asked Geithner – who now leads Warburg Pincus as CEO – to join DAH’s board, but he turned down the offer to join the blockchain project. But, Geithner might be of more help in the Bitcoin underground, not in the monied blockchain projects of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the Ivy Leagues.
Geithner’s experience in Asia Studies could prove valuable to a Bitcoin space in which much influence has been acquired in Asia, […]
