Page 1 of 3

What concerns crypto and blockchain, Marc Fleury is a critic and enthusiast at the same time. He told finews.asia in an interview why he believes that Bitcoin is a killer app of transnational banking.

Among Crypto- and Bitcoin-enthusiasts you seem to be some kind of elephant in the room. You are telling truths that nobody really wants to listen to.

Let me be clear, I am an optimist and I profoundly believe in the potential of the cryptocurrency space. And sometimes, this means taking a hard look at the industry and bringing attention to topics that may be difficult to hear. But I think it still resonates because the industry wants to evolve and mature.

Yet, you have some skeptic views on the whole development.

Looking back, Bitcoin made its debut as an alternative financial architecture as a response to the 2008 financial crisis. And yet, crypto has yet to reach its full potential as a viable asset class. In order to move the industry forward, we must focus on professionalizing crypto by looking on what has worked best — its financial applications, specifically 1) as a store of value; 2) in rapid fund formation as demonstrated during the ICO boom; and 3) in the prevalent use of asset-based stablecoins in the markets. These are the killer apps in crypto finance.

What got you interested in crypto and Bitcoin?

In the 90s, I was deeply involved in the development of what is commonly known today as Java applications. With JBoss, I created an open-source Java application server that is being used today. I started getting involved in blockchain and cryptocurrencies in 2011 and immediately saw the potential.

«Everybody seems to listen just to themselves»

I see a lot of parallels between the open-source in the 90s and the crypto industry now. I hope to take my learnings and experience from open source and help the crypto industry realize its potential.

Many see a much wider range in the industry.

I think there's a little bit of an echo chamber in crypto and blockchain. Everybody seems to listen just to themselves and is claiming that blockchain and crypto can solve all kinds of problems.

«To that, I have to tell them: that's just not how it works»

Truth is, I think we kind of lost the plot as an industry and have overlooked blockchain’s original thesis — financial applications. As a result, the industry has so far been driven by mostly baseless value, which is holding back crypto’s growth potential.