PwC Financial Technology Leader: The best way to get involved in the blockchain industry is to buy and hold Bitcoin

Representatives from the “Big Four” global audit firms attended an event at Fordham University in New York yesterday to discuss the use of blockchain technology in capital markets.

Members of the “Big Four” audit firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC) and global management consulting giant Accenture joined blockchain startup ConsenSys to discuss the future of the blockchain industry and offer career advice to college students about to embark on their careers.

While the audit giants did not offer new insights into their public strategies, their impromptu remarks suggest that traditional financial institutions are becoming increasingly comfortable with the technology.

Subhankar Sinha, head of financial technology at PwC, told university students in a speech that the best way to get involved in the industry is to buy and hold Bitcoin and Ethereum .

Sinha told Fordham University students:

“Buy it with your own money. It will pay huge dividends for you. You have to put yourself in a position where you are not comfortable and keep an open mind.”

Positive predictions

In addition, participants also discussed how the blockchain industry will develop in the future.

Fordham University professor Frank Hsu gave an overview of the history of blockchain and compared the technology to the TCP/IP protocol, an Internet technology developed in 1983 but not adopted by the mainstream until 1995.

He said:

“The use of blockchain frameworks began in 2008 and should have reached mainstream use by 2020.”

Chris Broderson, a capital markets researcher at Accenture, expressed his views on the application of blockchain in the medical field. He believes that encryption technology will make it easy to record medical records and transfer them through blockchain applications while reducing fraud.

Finally, Vanessa Grellet, chairman of Nexus Impact Investment Group and head of Ethereum, predicted that blockchain technology will disrupt the legal, financial services and remittance industries .

She concluded by calling on college students to “follow your passion, do what you love, focus on something for two to three years, and accumulate expertise and technology in your field.”

And emphasized the enthusiasm of people in the blockchain industry for this technology. Mike Maloney, financial services manager at EY, said:

“No one is going on Twitter to argue about the merits of Swift versus ACH.”