I work everyday finance professionals and they seem to always have two challenges when it comes to some of these assets: (1) how can I trust these exchanges that are always getting hacked and (2) how can I trust an asset that is not backed by anything like the USD is backed by the Central Bank?

My answers typcially are around the following:

(1) I tell them they are right and should not trust the exchanges and that we should solely use them to acquire, exchange or sell the asset. I tell then that we should protect the asset similar bit easier than we protect cash. We would not leave cash anywhere public, right? So we should take care of our private keys similar to the way we protect other tangible assets we own. The concept of private keys is somewhat challenging to explain but I basically say they are passwords to the use of your funds...

(2) This one makes me laugh every time! I immediately ask them what is the fiat they hold backed by... I get so many different answers but come back to them telling them that we need to trust a 3rd party to work in our best interest to ensure that the fiat will maintain its value. Then I go into the inflationary history of our fiat and how it will ultimately go out of control. Also mention that these assets are totally controlled by the government and can be manipulated and/or confiscated at any time without our ability tondo anything whereas crypto yields what Trace Mayer (which I refer them to) calls our own Monetary Sovereignty which allows us to do what we want with our assets. In terms of the backing, I explain to them that the network that is validating transactions and ensuring security is what backs our asset as our asset is part of that network.

Great to hear how to tweek this!