Bitcoin startup adds Visa founder to its board of advisors

Xapo, the bitcoin startup, is continuing to follow the trend of crypto currency companies becoming financially respectable by adding Wall Street veterans to its new advisory board.

One of the new advisors is Dee Hock, the founder of Visa. Hock sees bitcoin as the way forward and out of, what he sees as, archaic financial structures.

“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,” said Hock.

John Reed is another addition to the board. He’s the former chairman & CEO of Citibank. During his tenure Citibank developed the modern ATM, and ‘helped redefine the modern retail banking experience’.

“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,” said Reed.

The final appointment is Lawrence H. Summers, the former Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration.

“Bitcoin offers, for the first time, a method for transferring value and making payments from anywhere to anywhere, in real-time, without any intermediary,” said Summers.

These appointments come at a time when bitcoin companies are beginning to acquire legitimacy and mainstream acceptance. First, came the bitcoin startups that sought to be recognized as credible financial institutions by submitting to government regulation.  Now the interest has been reciprocated by the financial industry. Xapo has so far raised $40m, and last week, the New York Stock Exchange launched the first bitcoin index, (NYXBT).

 

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