Weiss Ratings CEO Interview: Crypto Ratings are Needed to Cut Through Hype and Fear

Weiss Ratings, an investment rating agency, published their first list of cryptocurrency ratings in Jan. 2018.

A little over a year later, CryptoSlate interviewed Dr. Martin Weiss, founder and chairman of Weiss Group, on the importance of a rating system for cryptocurrencies, as well as the future of payments, cryptocurrency adoption, and the challenges currently faced by the blockchain industry.

Interestingly, Dr. Weiss happens to be a polyglot with knowledge of Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish at the Berlitz School of Languages.

Dr. Martin Weiss established Weiss Research, a firm focused on equipping investors with relevant information and tools for decision-making; Weiss Ratings, an agency providing independent ratings of investment products; and moneyandmarkets.com, a financial journal.

"Objective independent rating systems are sorely needed to empower individual and institutional investors to help cut through hype and fear -to identify the truly promising cryptocurrencies."

Weiss added that the Weiss rating system for cryptocurrencies was not created only for investors, but for all stakeholders-including users, sponsors, developers, miners and token issuers.

The CEO revealed the three different rating systems Weiss Ratings has for cryptocurrencies: the Weiss Tech/Adoption grade for stakeholders with longer time preference when it comes to risk and reward potential; the Weiss risk/reward grade for stakeholders interested in short term trading opportunities; and the all-encompassing Weiss rating system for broad-based evaluation of cryptocurrencies.

Prior to entering the cryptocurrency industry, Dr. Weiss came out with the first independent insurance ratings in 1989, the first ratings of brokerage firms in 1992, the first Health Maintenance Organization ratings in 1994, and the first risk-oriented ratings on stocks in 2001.Comparing Blockchain Technology Development to the Rise of the Internet.

Dr. Weiss believes developments in blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency industry are similar to the rise of the internet.

Regarding money transfers in the future, Dr. Weiss admits that "The behind-the-scenes processing and validations will always be far more complex than sending an email." In the future, he expects better user experience and seamless transactions when the right applications are fully developed.