Читать книгу CryptoDad - J. Christopher Giancarlo - Страница 10

“Dreams I had just yesterday

Seem to all have passed away in time

And, once again, I have a memory

Another treasure in this life of mine,

This life of mine.

“Fate shows no mercy to love

And so, I pack my wheels once more

‘cause there's so many

Backroads in life yet to explore

Yet to explore

“I know I can't ever change

My lone person or my mind

And so, I have to be on my way

And leave those realities behind

Yeah, leave 'em behind

“And now, the sun is shining down

Upon a road

Twisting and unwinding

For this, I gave my all

I gave my all.

“I'm lookin' for a road

I'm lookin' for a road

I'm lookin' for a road

Again.” ¹

Thank you for opening the pages to this book. I'll tell you why I wrote it.

The future of the US economy—and, indeed, the world's—will be determined at the dynamic intersection of markets, technology, and politics. The interplay of these determines the cost and availability of the food we eat, the energy that heats our homes, the electricity that powers our smartphones, our mortgages and auto loans, and, ultimately, the money we use to pay for all of these. It determines the continued affordability of the vaunted “American way of life.”

I have spent a 37-year career in that economic intersection, first as a Wall Street lawyer and later as a finance executive. I then served for 5 years at its center at one of the world's least understood yet most important market regulators, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, known as the CFTC. It was there that, quite unexpectedly, I glimpsed the most profound change in generations: The rise of the Internet of Value, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies.

So this book is, in part, a personal one about how I have navigated my professional path in a radically changing world. But I hope it is much more than that. It is also a call to arms. Based on what I have seen, I believe democratic society faces an urgent need to courageously confront the extraordinary transformations wrought by the Internet of Value that will intimately affect the daily lives of each and every one of us. They must be shaped by a free people.

Here's why I say that. Let me begin with three key observations about financial markets.