Catherine Bessant defended the bank’s record patent stockpile, arguing it was nevertheless necessary to be prepared for change.
A senior executive at Bank of America (BoA) is not bullish on blockchain despite the bank holding more patents than any other finance firm, CNBC reported on March 26.
Speaking to the publication in an interview, chief technology officer Catherine Bessant said that even though the bank’s official stance on the technology was palpably buoyant, her personal views were quite different.
“What I am is open-minded,” she said. “In my private scoreboard, in the closet, I am bearish.”
BoA currently holds more than 80 blockchain patents, beating out the likes of the Big Four accounting firms and other Wall Street entities.
Discussing the impetus behind the bank’s activity, Bessant repeated words from several years ago, arguing it was important to be prepared should blockchain break out into the mainstream.
In its current form, however, there is little cause for belief.
“I haven’t seen one [use case] that even scales beyond an individual or a small set of transactions,” Bessant continued. She added:
“All of the big tech companies will come and say blockchain, blockchain, blockchain. I say, ‘Show me the use case. You bring me the use case and I’ll try it.’”
That perspective would notionally put BoA at odds with the likes of JPMorgan, which notably revealed JPM Coin this month, a blockchain-based token it says will ultimately have a range of transaction-based deployments.
For Bessant, however, the project needs to stand the test of time to gain credibility.
“I will be curious to see what the actual volume of usage is on the JPM Coin in a year,” she noted.
As Cointelegraph reported, overall sentiment around blockchain has wavered over the past year, with sources querying whether its potential matches the considerable hype the technology has received previously.
Source: , CoinTelegraph
Articles listed with Cash Tech News as the author are either general information, or may have been imported from another website, to bring our readers a rich media experience that encompasses articles that we find interesting, as well as those curated by others.
The views and opinions expressed here are for informational purposes only, and should not be confused with professional financial advice. These opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CashTechNews.com. Every investment and trade involves risk. You should conduct your own research, and contact your professional financial advisor before making any investment.
Corrections, feedback, and ideas should be submitted through the website contact form.