A director at ‘big four’ accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PWC) in Australia has quit the firm to join crypto exchange
bitcoin.com.au as its newest CEO.
Ben Ingram left PwC Australia back in March, where he was responsible
for digital strategy, accounting and consulting, as its director before
taking over the exchange as its chief executive, Business Insider Australia reports. The executive joins a long list of finance high-profile
professionals switching their traditional careers for exciting
opportunities in the crypto world.
PwC has made the news several times in connection to blockchain
projects. The company is known for supporting several distributed ledger
technology ventures, going as far as working on a blockchain auditing service.
Plan to Bring Crypto Products to Corporate Pension Plans
Ingram will reportedly be responsible for working on the overall
platform’s functionality, as well as developing crypto-based financial
products for areas such as companies’ pension plans, also known as
superannuation.
The CEO explained his crypto exchange is so much more than that — it
is an entry point for users to get exposed to Bitcoin in a simple
manner. Ingram says their customers can as easily acquire the digital
currency as getting rid of it — one of the features of the platform is
same-day settlements.
While the crypto exchange currently only supports Bitcoin and
Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies in the world, there are plans
in sight to add other digital currencies in the future.
Millennials Expected to Turn to Self-Managed Funds
However, Ingram’s focus seems to be on bringing crypto products to
superannuation, as he stated, “There are not many tangible examples of
crypto-based investment products yet. SMSF’s have typically been the
preserve of the wealthy. It’s a vehicle where you can manage your own
investments, and you also carry the cost of that audit.” Self-Managed
Super Funds (SMSF) are superannuation trust structures in which its
members are also trustees of the fund.
The CEO believes millennials owning crypto assets are more likely to
turn to self-management, as the underlying blockchain technology allows
for easy and fast auditing. While he agrees we still don’t have a full
picture yet of how blockchain will impact our overall future, he’s
positive it is the future.
He explained:
“We’re in the early-stage development of a new protocol. I
think the core premise of distributed ledger technology (DLT) has very
obvious widespread appeal. Even if the tech capabilities at present
aren’t capable, I think humans will prevail. We know this tech doesn’t
have a dead-end. While the evolutionary path hasn’t been fully
determined, I think there’s enough evidence that there is a path.”
