Starting as an eager teenage investor, Patrick L Young has grown to become an expert in global financial markets, as a specialist in derivatives and acknowledged as a leading expert in the world of exchanges and market structures.

 

He has written several books beginning with “Capital Market Revolution!” which lays claim to being perhaps the first book to outline the digital future of markets and has written opinion pieces for most of the world’s major newspapers as well as appearing on a multiplicity of TV and radio channels. He has been an exchange CEO and a director of firms in investment banking, private equity and multiple other sectors across the world.

 

Nowadays Patrick enjoys a broad portfolio of interests, ranging from advising investors and exchanges via publishing newsletters including “Exchange Invest” the benchmark daily read for market infrastructure world-wide.

 

His recently established crowdfunding platform, Hanza Trade, dovetails his financial markets interests with his passion for start-ups and an active involvement in the New Europe, which includes multiple investments and a dynamic Polish start-up club “Mission to Run” from which Patrick’s grassroots “Business Clinic” concept has helped many new start-ups to grow.

 

He is also a columnist on more macroeconomic matters for RT.com.

 

Mr. Young first got my attention on Twitter, as he is a frequently prescient analyst of world markets, and macroeconomics / politics.

 

I feel it a privilege to have an interview with Patrick L Young, particularly as he has been a strong proponent for cryptocurrency, and hope you find the interview as intriguing to read as it was to get doing it.

 

 

NM: Hello Patrick, firstly I would like to thank for this interview and I will begin by asking you, can you tell us when you first came across cryptocurrencies?

PLY: Actually my exposure pre-dates the use of the term ‘cryptocurrency’ itself! I was fascinated by the infant WWW and have been involved in web e-commerce since 1994. It was quickly clear to me that the network backbone of the web would serve as an ingenious new means by which to deliver electronic money, hence threatening, if not disintermediating, the dubious fiat currencies discredited by government actions (or inactions!) over the years.

Indeed, I wrote about the origins and development of electronic money in my original book “Capital Market Revolution – the future of markets in an online world” (FT Prentice Hall 1999) which remains a pleasant period piece looking back to an era when the financial industry was broadly uber-sceptical about electronic markets in any form. I could see then the huge potential for electronic currency although of course early schemes such as e-gold and Beenz, to name but two were failing even as my book was published!

 

 

NM: Where you immediately aware of their benefits or was it after some research?

PLY: Perhaps the opposite way around – I could immediately see the benefit of electronic stores of value…the difficulty was finding a process that would catch the world’s imagination in sufficient quantities to attract those who would create the necessary infrastructure to make a digital currency viable…

When it came to Bitcoin itself, the idea was fascinating and I was hooked as soon as I read through the original Satoshi report and got to grips with the genius concept of the Blockchain…

 

 

NM: What if any benefits do you see cryptocurrencies having for the average person, business and the overall global economy compared to the traditional sovereign currencies?

PLY: Clearly, ease of access, safety/security and immediacy of settlement are hugely significant advantages for any user. Moreover, watching the activities of the central banking nexus in recent years has been somewhat nauseating to behold as Quantitative Easing processes have demonstrated the limits of fiat money and the problems arising from a politically manipulated monetary system. There’s no point in being party political about it – essentially every western government has been demonstrating variations on the old Roman theme of coin clipping when it comes to “stewardship” of their analogue national currencies.

 

 

NM: With over 20 years’ experience and respected as a global financial expert, do you see cryptocurrencies replacing traditional money completely and if so what is your predicted time scale for this to happen?

PLY: Yes, I see an increasing role for cryptocurrency although many regulators, bankers’ et al have considerable incentive to seek to stymie that growth. The tipping point is very hard to discern. Take financial technology – a decade back there was a paucity of operative innovative thinking in the space (that said, what thinking there was, tended to be very, very good – qv Satoshi). Nowadays, FinTech has become something of a religious mania in the tech world, albeit the quality thinking has expanded, but it has not kept pace with the explosive overall growth of the sector.

Therefore, that tipping point is incredibly hard to divine as amongst other things, a big shock could yet accelerate cryptocurrency enormously. The current mega bubble in bonds may help things along while the government debt day of reckoning which might occur in parallel or in its wake, could have massive currency ramifications for the national analogues and thus encourage cryptocurrency usage. At the same time so long as the central bankers can keep pushing drunken faces into the QE vodka punch bowl; then the unwinding of the party, the inevitable hangover and the concomitant rise of cryptocurrency as a sound alternative may be a way away yet!

 

I have long said we are in the Model T Ford era of cryptocurrency development with Bitcoin and that means the Launchpad could yet take 20 years to achieve broad acceptance and challenge national currencies. I doubt it will be longer. Depending on the global macro-economic position and particularly the hubris of central bankers, it is likely to be a lot sooner…

 

 

NM: Do you see Blockchain applications such as smart contracts, accountancy, voting, and stock markets etc. revolutionising how the global financial system operates?

PLY: Nothing could be more obvious to me – and the Blockchain applications you mention are really only the tip of the Blockchain iceberg as to what can be developed, and therefore, how deep the revolution can be.

 

 

NM: How do you see this all evolving in regards to regulation by Governments?

PLY: Governments are now hurtling towards a massive extrinsic threat to their very existence. Having spent the 20th century in various degrees of holding citizens hostage in a form of “Stockholm syndrome” relationship, there are clear swathes of government cynicism swirling around the west in particular. While currently manifesting itself in a leftward lurch and an ‘eat the rich’ mentality, tangible anti-wealth government will induce those holding assets to abandon the worst governed jurisdictions and go for more enlightened nations (some of which may not even be formally established yet).

In the short term, government is terrified of threats to its supremacy but at the same time, the addiction of government to spending means that they are trying to regulate (restrict) cryptocurrency with one hand then moving to accept Bitcoin payments with the other. In this sense, their spending addiction will be the downfall of government despite the best efforts of some to regulate, often in a highly prescriptive manner, every vestige of human life.

 

 

NM: What do you see as the biggest obstacle in regards to mainstream adoption by the general public?

PLY: Conservatism towards money amongst a mass populace who do not appreciate the way ‘the pound in your pocket’ has been successfully eroded by inflation, government debt and of course the massive folly of QE.

 

 

NM: I see you are heavily involved in mentoring a lot of start-up businesses, are these new businesses moving forward with cryptocurrencies in mind as being a main part of their future income?

PLY: A great many. Of course there is, like all interesting areas at the nexus of money and innovation, a fair amount of snake doctoring going on. However I see many useful start-ups considering the cryptocurrency / Blockchain nexus and I am very optimistic that we will see many very exciting new developments in the near future building on the vast amount of human capital (not to say hard cash in various forms!) which has recently hit the cryptocurrency innovative mainstream.

 

 

NM: Finally Mr. Young, what advice would you give to new people interested in investing in cryptocurrencies themselves or the industry revolving around it?

PLY: Clearly the biggest problem with Bitcoin and its satellites remains volatility. Moreover, I am not entirely convinced Bitcoin itself has yet bottomed out. I suspect we may yet have a slightly more rocky time to come and a bit more of the downside to be explored. Of course when we see the mainstream business media come in and claim ‘the death of Bitcoin’ or similar (especially on the front cover of, say, The Economist or Time Magazine), it ought to be a clear indication that the long-term bottom is in sight…

 

In terms of pure investment advice whether on the currency or infrastructure around it – the usual rules apply. Do your due diligence! Don’t invest in something you cannot understand and once you have done all that hard work, make extra sure your investments are held somewhere secure. Oh, and never be afraid to walk away if you cannot get comfortable on all these points.

 

 

NM: Thanks again for partaking in this interview Patrick. You are the most down to earth man I’ve yet met in the industry and you have been a great help and support to me personally on my journey. Have you anything you would like to say on cryptocurrencies or the Blockchain that I haven’t touched on with my questions?

PLY: There is so much to say but for now let’s just make it clear: cryptocurrency is not merely the future of money; it’s the future of a very exciting and intriguing new era for commerce, investment and economic growth across the world as we enter the nano technological era. Welcome to the world of opportunity – with cryptocurrency at its epicentre!

 

 

Thank you Niall.