The Bank of England might possibly have “its own Bitcoin-style digital currency” this year.
The Bank of England created a research unit three years ago to examine connecting a state-backed crypto to sterling.
The recent development indicates that there has been a breakthrough.
Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, recently disclosed in a report that he has had talks with other central banks regarding the launch of a digital currency.
A few days ago, Carney relayed that bitcoin is an “active area of interest” and was enthused by its underlying mechanism for delivery, the decentralized distributed ledger.
Seemingly unperturbed over its potential for retail, he reportedly told British lawmakers:
“You don’t end up with those financial stability risks, you get financial stability benefits. And you save huge amounts of computational energy intensity.”
He continued to assess the Bank of England’s research of bitcoin as “pretty active in it but we’re also disciplined. If we’re going to apply something to the core of the system, it’s going to need to meet five sigma quality rating.”
He concluded his remarks, saying:
“What I say on this topic today will be outdated six months from now because things are moving so rapidly.”
With discussions moving on into the new year, Carney told the Treasury Select Committee:
“I have participated in discussions with the major central banks on this issue” of a central bank-backed digital currency.
“And over the summer the Bank of England used blockchain technology as a test to see if it could be used as settlements between central banks. It was successful.
“The underlying technology is actually of a fair bit of interest.
“We are working with it at the Bank of England.”
Bank of England Initiated Creation of Cryptocurrency
Last year, the institution tapped Dr. George Danezis of the University College London to come up with a cryptocurrency with state-assumed backing.
The result was RS Coin, and it seemed to add efficiencies associated with automation as it relates to banking purposes.
Central banks could control the money supply any time, and could see the amount of money in circulation.
