Ripple’s global payments tech conference, Swell, will start off this fall with a keynote speech from 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton, according to Ripple’s July 31 blog post.
Former President Clinton’s keynote and Q&A in San Francisco on Oct. 1 will be moderated by Gene Sperling, the National Economic Council Director and Advisory under both Presidents Clinton and Obama.
The blog post notes that former President Clinton helped to “usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today,” as well as bringing new technologies to underprivileged communities globally.
Ripple notes that today’s technologies like digital assets and blockchain present the same challenges as the growth of the Internet in the 1990s, as both phenomena require striking a policy balance between preventing risk and allowing for innovation.
Cryptocurrencies and politics have drawn ever closer together this year, as U.S. regulators have begun to call for more regulation of the crypto sector. Crypto-focused companies have leaned more into politics as well — recently released documents revealed that major U.S. crypto exchange and wallet Coinbase has formed its own political action committee (PAC), allowing it to potentially pool donations for crypto-friendly campaigns.
Back in 2016, Bill Clinton reportedly received his “first” Bitcoin (BTC) in form of a physical coin from crypto entrepreneur Matt Roszak — who also gave celebrity Kim Kardashian a similar physical Bitcoin earlier this week at a charity poker tournament.