Crypto expert says we won’t see regulation for years

Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and digital assets took center stage at the Code Conference today. During a panel, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said Bitcoin could end up becoming the “Napster of digital currency,” noting how Napster “showed us what’s possible, but in the end, it was Spotify and iTunes and Pandora that won the day because they engaged with regulators,” he said onstage at the Code Conference today.

But it’s a bit of the Wild West out there regarding blockchain and cryptocurrency. In terms of when we’ll see regulation around cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, it will be years, Kathryn Haun, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and board member at Coinbase and HackerOne, said at the Code Conference.

There are parallels between the early days of the internet and blockchain, Haun said. In the early days of the internet, for example, people called for a single regulator. That didn’t happen, but now we’re seeing that happen with cryptocurrencies and blockchain, she said.

“We don’t want regulation to outpace understanding,” she said.

For example, if regulation were to have come out a year ago, it would already be outdated thanks to the rise of ICOs, she said.

She added, “It’s important to wait and see how the technology develops.”