By : The ruthless bear market of 2018 has , including many crypto startups and executives. The latest is former EY leader Angus Champion de Crespigny, who’s leaving the industry.
Champion de Crespigny made the revelation on , where he insists that he’s still bullish on . However, he’s discouraged by how long he believes it will take for mass , and doesn’t want to wait around.
As recently as November 2019, Angus was touting and at a recent conference (video below).
Champion: Institutions are Dragging Their Feet
Champion de Crespigny worked for 11 years at Big Four accounting firm Ernest and Young. He spent the last couple of years focused on . In August 2018, Angus left EY to focus on other projects amid with .
Champion de Crespigny explained his reasons for leaving the crypto industry altogether in an April 19 Twitter thread:
“I am no longer working full-time in the / industry, and have taken a role outside it. I’ve had a number of people ask why, or seem surprised, so I thought I’d lay out my rationale in case it is of interest to others.”
“Over the years I converged on what we call coin maximalism, or minimalism. That is, ‘’ was developed to solve a very specific problem, and it did so at a massive sacrifice. That problem: ensuring that entries can’t be double-spent when there’s no central party.”
Over the years I converged on what we call coin maximalism, or minimalism. That is, “” was developed to solve a very specific problem, and it did so at a massive sacrifice. That problem: ensuring that entries can’t be double spent when there’s no central party.
— Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion)
‘You Can’t Rush People to Believe’ in bitcoin
Angus explained that he had left EY in August to start a business focused on promoting in two ways: by helping to institutionalize it or by advancing in the developing world.
He says he got discouraged once he realized that institutions are not eager to promote mainstream crypto .
“I quickly worked out that I’m not going to be able to build in the developing world…you fundamentally can’t build a legitimate business that is also decentralized to resist government intervention.”
“I also found that institutions were not going to be on-boarding as a financial product as quickly as I had thought they would from my discussions over the years. Institutionalization has happened, but not as much as I’d expected and enough for me to build a business on it.
“You also can’t rush people to believe that something has value.”
I also found that institutions were not going to be onboarding as a financial product as quickly as I had thought they would from my discussions over the years. Institutionalization has happened, but not as much as I’d expected and enough for me to build a business on it.
— Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion)
Champion: bitcoin Adoption Will Take too Long
Champion de Crespigny added that he’s not leaving the industry forever. He promised that he’ll remain involved somehow because he believes in ’s disruptive potential.
However, he says the time horizon is longer than he had expected, so it’s time for him to cut his losses and move on to greener pastures.
“I’m as confident in ’s ability to radically transform the world as I ever have been. However, I believe the time horizon to do that is very long, and I believe my best bet in the industry is to simply buy and hold.”
While Champion de Crespigny isn’t the only person who has left the industry amid the market downturn, his departure is notable because he worked at Ernst and Young.
As CCN reported, EY has been making a concerted effort to ramp up its and crypto businesses in order to woo investors. Last week, EY revealed that it during the past two years developing crypto and tax tools.
EY Spends Millions Upgrading ‘ Analyzer’ to File Your Crypto Taxes
— Crypto News (@PaveIt_)
Despite these efforts, institutions have been slow to embrace crypto. Some — like Goldman Sachs — , claiming they never were on the bandwagon.
Goldman Sachs CEO Kills the Rumor: ‘We Never Had Plans to Open a Crypto Desk’
— CCN.com (@CCNMarkets)
Crypto Industry Has Failed to Educate General Public
All this dithering points to a major problem that’s not being addressed — and that’s the crypto industry’s the general public about what is, and why it’s supposedly superior to fiat currency.
Until that happens, mainstream will remain a pipe dream.
Over Half of U.S. Retirees are Crypto-Aware but Won’t Invest in : Survey
— Crypto News (@PaveIt_)
Published at Sun, 21 Apr 2019 23:34:14 +0000
