In an interview with TheStreet Roundtable, Blockdaemon CEO and founder Konstantin Richter advised the founder of Crypto: Embrace Governance. The value of expert surveillance is often overlooked in the industry, at its core.
Konstatin’s perspective is driven by interactions with major financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Cryptocurs overruns with scams, ragpals and other scams. Earlier this year, Haley Welch launched $hawk, a meme coin based on the virus clip she featured. Within hours it collapsed and millions of dollars lost.
Apart from the thousands of memo coins that pop up every day, several well-known obstacles in the crypto business are polluting the industry’s image. Konstantin highlighted FTX, collapsed in 2022, with no boards.
At the beginning of April, the well-established token, Mantra’s Om Token, surpassed 90% in a day. Mantras don’t even have traditional boards. Instead, they rely on governance tokens that grant the owner the right to vote.
“The young founders and people who build open source systems have inherent doubts about surveillance, and I fully understand that,” he explained. “But if you don’t have a professional board to take accountability to you and guide your thoughts, you’re missing out on the benefits of a real entrepreneur. It will lead you to dangerous behavior.”
Implementing proper governance in cryptography is not easy. The most obvious risk is alienating crypto purists who view surveillance as central control. Smaller projects can also afford expert committees and may increase the gap between funded and community projects.
The appeal to the founders of Konstantin is clear. You need to mature to be accepted by the masses. If you can trust the business you interact with, this will drive growth and innovation and not be hampered.