Former U.S. President Bill Clinton attended Ripple’s annual Swell conference in San Francisco on October 1 as a keynote speaker. This year’s conference focused on blockchain financial services, remittances, e-commerce, and global frameworks for regulation across borders. At Swell CEO Brad Garlinghouse also announced the launch of RippleNet, followed by Bill Clinton speaking alongside Gene Sperling, his former economic advisor (1996-2001).
While Clinton doesn’t seem like an obvious speaker choice for a tech conference at first glance, The Ripple Team explains his undeniable relevance:
“At a time when groundbreaking technology and regulation were often on a collision course, President Clinton helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today. He also established programs that bridged the “digital divide” and brought new technology to underserved communities around the world.”
His speech was comprehensive, not only focusing on the Ripple XRP cryptocurrency but the foreign policy that might support its adoption, and how important fraud elimination is at this moment in blockchain. Clinton expressed that he believes in blockchain technology‘s potential, but first and foremost wants to protect the public—however, he doesn’t think we should “kill the golden goose” either.
He made comparisons to the rise of the internet during his presidency in the 90s. He discussed the struggles he faced then with rapid technological advancement and the measures they had to take to prevent crime from radiating in the space without killing “the golden goose”. The ex-president warned,
“You don’t want consumer fraud, you don’t want to finance criminal enterprises, and you certainly don’t want to make it easier to pull off severe attacks by terrorists.”
