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Not to be missed: Veteran Fortune financial writer Shawn Tully got an exclusive and in-depth look at Bakkt, the new Bitcoin company founded by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of New York Stock Exchange. Bakkt's ambitions range from cryptocurrency trading to partnerships with Starbucks to allow you to buy lattes with Bitcoin. But all this raises questions about the implications of one of the most centralized institutions on Wall Street – indeed, the company behind the largest US stock market – that seeks to dominate the world of decentralized blockchain technology. As Tully writes, "ICE's plan to bring cryptography to the masses is contrary to what Bitcoin advocates typically support." Purists prefer Bitcoin's "distributed" architecture and categorically oppose the fact of putting a large exchange at the center of both Bitcoin investment and payment systems. "Here is the answer from ICE:
An interview in the Bond Room, with walls adorned with certified framed ties that describe the great railway and infrastructural loans that have built in America, [ICE CEO Jeff] Sprecher has drawn a parallel between the exchange born in 1792 famous under the wood tree and the technology that could transform the way consumers and businesses buy almost everything. "Bitcoin can not survive as a rogue idea," he says. "To evolve, cryptocurrencies must be performed on a consolidated infrastructure, they need the confidence and the rules that have been integrated into our financial system for many years, they need the kind of trust the Big Board represents." [19659003] Wall Street seems to adopt a strategy to counter the concerns that the blockchain will put out of the market: if you can not defeat them, join them. Only time will tell how it will end.
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