During the Code4Future briefing, the starting time event in Italy dedicated to the concept of open innovation held at the Talent Garden in Rome, the former Minister of Economy and Finance Giulio Tremonti — currently president of Aspen Institute Italy — expressed his thoughts regarding the futurity of digital payments and the advent of cryptocurrencies.

On Nov. 8, the offset day of the Code4Future event, Tremonti took part in a circular table discussion, during which he said the opportunities offered by the fintech sector were changing both business logic and the office of traditional banks:

"Banks may be caught off-baby-sit by fintech activities. An alliance betwixt traditional banks and new digital industries is essential. A structure that incorporates new techniques but maintains old values."

Issues surrounding the level of trust that users must place in the traditional cyberbanking system, which has been in decline for several years, was also addressed:

"How tin can we recover this trust? The idea is to integrate the new with the old in order to write a dissimilar history than that of the banks. The thought of trust in central bodies has been present in our reality for a very long time. Just recollect of what is written on the notes of the Weimar Republic, as reported by Goethe: 'trust me, believe in me.'"

The erstwhile Government minister and so expressed his opinion regarding Facebook's Libra project and the relationship between old and new currencies. In his stance, Libra will forever alter the rules of the game as well as the mode users call up about and utilise money:

"There will be a transition from old coins to new coins. I believe this to be the case, but I can't tell you lot when. I think your children will meet a world in which currency volition be created differently."

For the outset fourth dimension, we are discussing a currency that does non necessarily need to be distributed past a state, and this is happening considering people have slowly begun to sell portions of their sovereignty:

"In the virtually future, citizens will sell portions of their sovereignty to acme players similar Facebook. Because if it is an over-the-peak system, we believe that by providing a portion of our identity, we are doing the right thing, because they offer something in return. And so what they take becomes true, and what you lot have becomes imitation."

Tremonti likewise commented on the news of the imminent launch of a national cryptocurrency by China:

"The world is splitting between the commonwealth of the United States and the digital despotism of Cathay. The Chinese system is all about absolute control. I believe this is a control technique, not a fiscal technique."

Cointelegraph finally asked what his opinion was on decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin:

"It's the future and you cannot cease it. Having said that, Bitcoin does not have a articulate legal status, and this is conspicuously an obstacle. According to accounting rules, it's an asset you should put on your financial statements. Just if it's an asset that you should put on your financial statements, should VAT exist applied when it is sold? Information technology is notwithstanding an area of ​​corking uncertainty."