Note: The original text comes from Cointelegraph, written by Helen Partz, with slight deletions and modifications!
William Quigley, co-founder of stablecoin giant Tether and decentralized exchange WAX, believes that the tokenization of U.S. fiat currency is a breakthrough innovation and the greatest innovation since the invention of U.S. fiat currency. It will revolutionize global finance in the coming years and promote new developments in global financial mechanisms.
At the Financial Times Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Summit, Quigley expressed optimism about the future global transition to tokenized currencies. He believes that the global economy is likely to transition to a tokenized monetary system within the next 10 years and praised tokenization technology.
Quigley said: "Few technological innovations can be so perfect and have almost no shortcomings, and tokenization technology is one of them. When U.S. fiat currency is tokenized, it actually enhances its value rather than replaces it." In addition, Quigley also emphasized the potential of tokenized U.S. fiat currency and stablecoins (such as Tether's USDT), which provide interest or returns on held digital assets.
“I’ve questioned why a traditional checking account never paid me interest,” Quigley said. “They say you already have the convenience of electronic banking. I think one day that might be possible. But right now, people are so comfortable with the tokenization of the dollar that the idea of giving up interest on the dollar is not a compelling issue.”
Quigley stressed that trillions of dollars are sitting in bank accounts in the U.S. earning no interest, and that people use these accounts because they value the idea of banking services.
“People want to use ATMs, they want to use automated exchanges. So, in effect, people are paying for these services by giving up interest.”
(Tether and WAX co-founder William Quigley. Source: Financial Times)
During the fireside chat, Quigley also shared the story of how he got involved in crypto and co-founded Tether, currently the largest stablecoin by market cap and the most traded cryptocurrency.
Quigley mentioned that his passion for gaming inspired many of his ideas. “The concept of game items became very important in gaming in the late 1990s,” he said, adding, “A lot of people wanted to trade game items, and trading in a barter system wasn’t efficient.”
“So, my partners and I developed a digital escrow service that allowed users to purchase these items with cash,” he said. “This was a long time ago, but the options for using fiat currency on the internet were very limited.” Quigley also said he was one of PayPal’s earliest institutional investors.
*Friendly reminder: This article is for popular science purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice!