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Anthony Watson, former Nike CIO and a LGBT activist, has joined Bitreserve to work alongside CEO Halsey Minor as the company’s president and COO.

Watson left U.S. sports giant Nike in December citing personal reasons after he had worked for the company for less than a year. In particular, Watson (who is originally from London) – single, gay, and used to the urban lifestyle – experienced culture shock in Portland while working for Nike. Before joining Nike as CIO, Watson had worked in the banking sector and wanted to make a difference in the financial system. He values the capacity of the bitcoin startup to democratize finance and to help poor people around the world.

“Money is a common language around the world and Bitreserve democratizes how people access, hold, and move value. We have the unique opportunity to craft a lasting legacy of delivering transparency, massive innovation, and positive social impact to financial services and in peoples’ everyday lives,” he said.

Watson believes in the bitcoin’s potential to make an impact but not in the digital currency itself:

“What I think is so revolutionary here is that it can allow you to trade in any commodity,” he told Fortune. “Right now it’s metals, but it could be cocoa beans. The broader vision is much bigger than digital currencies.”

He is convinced that bitcoin will do its job and disappear:

“I’ll be surprised if bitcoin is here in five years,” he said. “It’s a means to an end. The value of bitcoin isn’t the currency, but the technology. I think once the world becomes more accustomed and attuned to the platform of bitcoin, the noise will go away, and the currency will go away too. The real transformation is the idea of taking all barriers down and having it be ubiquitous. Whatever currency or commodity you want to transact in, you can, and you can do it for free. That’s pretty revolutionary.”

Watson's views go along with Bitreserve’s vision of their mission. They see themselves as a new financial system and their motto is “Change money. Change the world”. Bitreserve presents its service as transforming bitcoin into “stable money” and using it as other familiar forms of money with the help of their digital platform. Bitreserve offers to convert bitcoin into eight fiat currencies and four precious metals.

“Built for a post-trust world, Bitreserve’s real-time transparency system eliminates the opportunities for fraud and destructive risk-taking that have caused the collapse of banks and other financial institutions throughout history,” the startup's website reads.

The so-called bitcoin 2.0 firms continue to attract world class experts in the world of banking and finance. Morgan Stanley investment manager Jacob Dienelt reportedly has recently joined Factom as its head treasurer.