I watched this interview this morning with Asiff Hirji, COO of Coinbase. I know him very well as a friend. He worked for me in London a long time ago when he started his career. He knows all about winning in regulated markets - he was COO of TD Ameritrade the US broking firm.

He is very actively working to build Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency adoption. The challenge he faces at Coinbase is that they have chosen to work in a way that fits inside the regulatory framework of the SEC and CFTC as best as they can. He will do whatever it takes to influence the emerging framework. Does that mean he and Coinbase are centralists?

It does not - they are being pragmatic about building in a way that will bring them the greatest slice of the opportunity without risk of being closed down. Now there is no doubt that regulation is not the friend of decentralization. By definition it cannot be as regulation is centralist.

Much more worrying was the interview I watched yesterday with the Chariman of the SEC, Jay Clayton. He is the archetype centralist.