The World Economic Forum will explore cryptocurrencies through the Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies. The aim of the body will be to analyze the multiple aspects of the crypto and blockchain landscape and the challenges they entail.
Ranging from privacy to the paradigm shift in payments, via financial inclusion, the World Economic Forum seems to recognize the innovative scope that cryptocurrencies represent.
The Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies will assess the challenges and opportunities of cryptocurrencies and what will be needed to achieve both. It will do so from a technical knowledge perspective, while also looking for ways to regulate the sector.
Members of the Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies
The board will be headed by Maltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer of Coinshare and Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa.
Clarisse Awamengwi, a blockchain and cryptocurrency expert at the World Economic Forum will be the project manager.
Among the members, there are several distinguished personalities from the financial world and the crypto world. The names of Joseph Lubin (ConsenSys) and Brad Garlinghouse (Ripple) stand out.
But that’s not all. The World Economic Forum seems to also want to bring together representatives of the banking world interested in crypto. It is no coincidence that there are also representatives of financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and payment giants such as PayPal.
These are the members of the Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies:
- Gabriel Abed, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, Bitt;
- Robleh Ali, General Manager, Wadagso;
- Marwan Al Zarouni, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Blockchain Center;
- Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Protocol Labs;
- Galia Benartzi, Co-Founder, Business Development, Bancor Network;
- Kathleen Breitman, Co-Founder, Tezos;
- Jill Carlson, Co-Founder, Open Money Initiative;
- Vansa Chatikavanij, Chief Executive Officer, OMG Network;
- Jose Fernandez da Ponte, VP, Global Business Development, PayPal;
- Matthew Davie, Chief Strategy Officer, Kiva;
- Rhodri Davies, Head, Policy; Programme Director, Giving Thought, Charities Aid Foundation;
- Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer, CoinShares;
- Denelle Dixon, Chief Executive Officer, Stellar Development Foundation;
- Evgeniia Filippova-Karlusch, Researcher and Lecturer;
- Brad Garlinghouse, Chief Executive Officer, Ripple;
- Byron Gibson, Program Manager, Stanford Center for Blockchain Research;
- Mariana Gomez de la Villa, Director, Distributed Ledger Technology Programme, ING Group;
- Oli Harris, Vice-President, Digital Assets, Goldman Sachs;
- Yusuf Hussain, Head, Risk, Gemini Trust Company, LLC;
- Rosine Kadamani, Chief Executive Officer, Blockchain Academy;
- Lily Liu, President, Aiden Health;
- Christina Lomazzo, Blockchain Lead, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF);
- Joseph Lubin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ConsenSys;
- Paul Maley, Managing Director; Head, Corporate Bank, United Kingdom and Ireland, Deutsche Bank;
- Christine Moy, Lead, Blockchain, JPMorgan Chase & Co;
- Kwame Rugunda, Chief Executive, CryptoSavannah;
- Sebastian Serran, Chief Executive Officer, Ripio;
- Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, Visa;
- Alpen Sheth, Senior Technologist, Financial Innovation, Mercy Corps;
- Arianna Simpson, Deal Partner, Andreessen Horowitz;
The World Economic Forum, cryptocurrencies and blockchain
The WEF seems decidedly watchful of the development in the blockchain world. For some time now, the international body has been working on blockchain projects, providing guidelines for use and implementation.
In recent months, the idea of a framework for CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) was presented at the regular World Economic Forum in Davos.
It is precisely the digital currencies issued by central banks that seem to be the meeting point between cryptocurrencies and traditional finance. Several countries, China in the lead, are working on them, and they could soon become a reality.
