Xapo, the bitcoin wallet, has formed an advisory board that includes three-well known financial visionaries: Dee Hock, the founder of Visa; Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and John Reed, former chairman and CEO of Citibank. The three will enhance Xapo’s status as a progressive bitcoin wallet. All three individuals see bitcoin as playing an important role in future payments and governance.
Hock has played a major role in the creation of modern payments systems.
“Bitcoin represents not only the future of payments, but also the future of governance,” Hock said.
“We live in the 21st century, but are still using command and control organizational structures from the 16th century. Bitcoin is one of the best examples of how a decentralized, peer-to-peer organization can solve problems that these dated organizations cannot. Like the Internet, bitcoin is not owned or controlled by any one entity, so it presents incredible opportunities for new levels of efficiency and transparency in financial transactions.”
Reed: Bitcoin brings digital revolution to finance
Reed was responsible for growing Citibank into the world’s first truly global financial franchise. Under his leadership, Citibank developed the modern ATM and helped redefine the modern retail banking experience.
“Financial services have remained largely untouched by the digital revolution,” said Reed.
“Bitcoin represents a real opportunity for changing that. Money at its core is simply a ledger for keeping track of debts, and bitcoin is truly the best iteration of a universal ledger we’ve ever seen. The mere fact that there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins and that each bitcoin can be divided into 100 million units makes it a significant improvement on any historical form of currency.”
Summers: Bitcoin brings unique advantages
Summers was the Secretary of Treasury under President Bill Clinton. He brings a reputation as a leading economic and policy thinker.
“Until now, whenever we’ve needed to transfer money, we’ve had to rely on a third party, whether it be a bank, a clearing house or a payment networ. Bitcoin offers, for the first time, a method for transferring value and making payments from anywhere to anywhere, in real-time, without any intermediary. This could mean we soon see many billions of people sending bitcoin everyday as easily as they currently send a text message.”
“We look forward to continuing to build the global bitcoin ecosystem with the help of these accomplished leaders and visionaries from the worlds of finance, economics and public policy,” said Wences Casares, Xapo founder and CEO, in a blog on the company’s website.
Xapo relocates global financial center
Casares also recently announced the company is moving its global financial center to Zurich, Switzerland. The company’s primary deep cold storage vault is also located in Switzerland. That country’s regulatory stability, international neutrality and its deep-seated tradition in global finance also factored into the decision.
Xapo will retain a presence in Palo Alto, Calif. to serve its U.S. customers.
Xapo has raised $40 million from Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Fortress Investment Group, Ribbit Capital and Emergence Capital Partners.
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