The New York Times technology and finance reporter Nathaniel Popper about Goldman Sachs and Bitcoin

The New York Times technology and finance reporter Nathaniel Popper’s new book “Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the inside story of the misfits and millionaires trying to reinvent money” has been praised as one of the best Bitcoin books to date.

“A company like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan is hesitant to rely or work with a financial network in which the people keeping it alive are essentially anonymous,” says Popper in a Forbes interview. “Banks have to know who’s transacting and flag it if someone suspicious is involved in the transaction. But it’s quite easy in Bitcoin to have an identity tied to an address in a way that would make a bank feel comfortable.”

Goldman Sachs is one of the most respected financial companies in the world, often considered as epitome of the best – and the worst – of today’s financial system. Therefore, Goldman Sachs’ take on bitcoin can be considered as representative of the financial industry as a whole.

Popper reports that JPMorgan and other major banks envisaged a new blockchain that would be jointly run by the computers of the largest banks and serve as the backbone for a new, instant payment system without a single point of failure. The new blockchain, decentralized but closed, would offer the benefits of the current Bitcoin network without relying on end-users for its operations.