London, 14 March 2018 – London Academy of Trading (LAT) senior lecturer Ron William participated in the launch of an official All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the House of Lords, tasked with developing a better understanding of digital currencies and their potential future in the UK, on Tuesday 13 March.
The purpose of the group is to consider broadening UK Parliamentary resources through a variety of inquiry committees. This includes wider regulatory discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority, and related Parliamentary groups within the Treasury and Science & Technology Select Committees.
The meeting was held at the House of Lords, and was attended by Members of Parliament, digital currency experts, business and industry representatives, media, and academics.
Ron William’s speech at the meeting helped to highlight the role that education can play in this matter.
Reflecting on his participation, Mr William said: I introduced the London Academy of Trading as a regulated and accredited college, which has recently been offering additional educational specialisation within the digital currency space.
It was a great occasion for us to show how we can prepare people to confidently approach these subjects. LAT’s educational development into these new areas is shared by many leading universities, which have created short-courses to cater for growing demand.
Several of the participants had reviewed Mr William’s analysis on digital currencies, notably Bitcoin, which predicted the latest top/crash, and were interested to share a big picture view on the market. They discussed the mania aspect of the latest boom in 2017, and how it compares to the tech bubble of 2000; which still ultimately led to a long-term process of positive disruption and broader application within the real-economy.
Mr William also talked about the need for high-integrity education, the opportunity for the UK to become a strategic hub for Fintech innovation post-Brexit, and shared feedback on key constituent groups that would likely benefit from this new technology wave.
Mr William has been invited to attend future meetings of the APPG, with the next one being scheduled before the summer. which The second APPG Digital Currencies gathering will include a wider audience of UK parliamentary representatives, to further support this new initiative.