During the first day of Ripple’s much anticipated Swell event, the keynote speaker was President Bill Clinton, who spoke about a series of tech-related issues, but notably expressed his interest in the possibilities of blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

The discussion about DLT and blockchain technology came about during a question and answer session between Clinton and his former economic advisor, Gene Sperling that covered a wide range of topics, many of which were not related to blockchain. The keynote and Q&A session were not recorded by Ripple, so information about the speech comes from a cell phone video taken by one of the attendees.

Clinton notably made some incredibly bullish remarks on the future of blockchain technology towards the end of his speech, explaining to attendees that although blockchain has “staggering” possibilities, there are things that could inhibit its growth, namely divisive economic and social policies.

“This whole blockchain deal has the potential it does only because it is applicable across national borders [and] income groups. The permutations and possibilities are staggeringly great. We could ruin it all by negative identity politics and economic and social policy. You think about that.”

He also expressed that regulators should protect consumers without killing “the golden goose,” while comparing the rise of blockchain to the rise of the internet that occurred in the 1990s.

Although he was overwhelmingly positive about the nascent technology, he also expressed some concern as to how to combat the potential for the technology to be used by bad actors, echoing what has been largely sensationalized by the media regarding the illicit use of cryptocurrency.

"You don't want consumer fraud, you don't want to finance criminal enterprises, and you certainly don't want to make it easier to pull off severe attacks by terrorists. That's the challenge of each new technology."

Adding to this warning, Clinton also said that investors shouldn’t get too consumed with immediate financial rewards that are being associated with cryptocurrency and blockchain, noting that financial speculation regarding risky products is partly what led to the financial crisis in 2008.

He also added that major financial speculation on blooming technologies could further magnify existing social inequalities. "The more the benefits materialize, the more you have to be careful about it," Clinton said.