Think Of Crypto As A Transactional Tool – Treat It Like A Speculative Investment, Says Blockchain Expert Jack Shaw
Jack Shaw, a world-renowned technology futurist and one of the “Top 25 Speakers in the World” as ranked by the National Speakers Association, has spent over three decades advising Fortune 500 companies on disruptive innovation.
A pioneer in blockchain thought leadership, Shaw has led strategic initiatives at the intersection of emerging tech, AI, and financial transformation long before digital assets became mainstream.
In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Shaw offers a clear-eyed view of how cryptocurrencies are redefining the global financial landscape—accelerating cross-border transactions, reducing costs, and challenging legacy systems.
But with innovation outpacing regulation, Shaw warns that new safeguards are urgently needed to protect consumers and ensure fair, secure adoption.
Q: As cryptocurrencies gain traction across global markets, how are they redefining traditional finance—and what safeguards are still missing?
Jack Shaw: “The notion that we might be able to have a valid currency that could be exchanged digitally has been around for at least 35 years. People have been trying to work on how to do this.
“As soon as the internet began to emerge and people began to recognise that there was commercial potential, people were saying, “Well, wouldn’t it be great if there was some way we could make a payment over the internet that didn’t require us to go through a third-party provider?”
“Whether we’re talking about a bank, or a service provider like Venmo, or a credit card processing company like Mastercard or Visa or some of the other alternative processors — all of these third-party organisations add cost to the exchange and transfer of money in one way or another.
“Wouldn’t it be great if I could just send you money digitally, and you would somehow magically have that money, and I could send it directly to you?
“The problem that we had prior to the incorporation of blockchain technology to leverage cryptocurrencies — the first one of which was Bitcoin — and that goes back 16 years now (the seminal paper was written at the end of October in 2008 describing how blockchain technology could enable cryptocurrency)… they named the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
“They didn’t actually use the phrase “blockchain” in the initial paper that described it, but very quickly, the technology and the way it worked was described as blockchain — and the name has stuck.
“The reason why blockchain works — and we’re not going to get into the technical details of how blockchain works because it gets into some sophisticated mathematics, and unless you have the …
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