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June 27, 2017 at 08:33 AM
Bitcoin and blockchain go beyond just digital currency, according to Jalak Jobanputra, founding partner of venture capital fund FuturePerfect Ventures. “There’s really interesting cryptographic proof and infrastructure behind what makes bitcoin work,” she said, that could be used to make the financial industry more egalitarian.
For example, right now it can cost up to 20% of a transaction to send money within Africa. “Imagine if we could open up that mobile money system to the global market and we could reduce friction” to bring the cost of a transaction down to 2% or 3%, she said on a webinar.
(Related: Edward Snowden Talks WannaCry Attack, Blockchain, Financial Regs)
Jobanputra spoke on a webinar on Thursday hosted by Cornerstone Capital Group, a financial services firm dedicated to ESG investing.
There’s “definitely a bubble” forming in cryptocurrencies over the last few months, she said. “We’re seeing new coin offerings on a daily basis. We’re seeing some of them raise $150 million in a matter of 10 minutes [and] none of it’s regulated right now.”
Jobanputra is still bullish on digital currency, but investors have to do their homework. “Any investor just needs to be really careful about the underlying technology and how they are structured so that if there is regulation, you make sure they can still hold value.”
The crypto market today isn’t very user-friendly, she said. “It’s not a seamless experience to gain access to these markets and I definitely think we’ll see that evolve with the consumer-facing part being easier to navigate,” she noted.
There’s a lot happening on the back end, though, that could bring the cost of transactions down and improve privacy. “But that [requires] a lot of companies working on the infrastructure layer and partnering with larger companies,” Jobanputra said.
