The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, believes that no existing cryptocurrencies will last. Talking about the design, governance, and arrangements of “a lasting digital currency,” the head of England’s central bank said, “I don’t think cryptocurrencies as originally formulated are it.”
Bank of England Chief Andrew Bailey Doubts Any Existing Cryptocurrencies Will Last
Bank of England (BOE) Governor Andrew Bailey talked about cryptocurrency at the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda Monday. Speaking on a panel entitled “Resetting Digital Currencies,” he said that digital innovation in payments was “here to stay.”
However, as for cryptocurrencies, the head of England’s central bank said:
Have we landed on what I would call the design, governance and arrangements for what I might call a lasting digital currency? No, I don’t think we’re there yet, honestly. I don’t think cryptocurrencies as originally formulated are it.
The Bank of England governor added: “The whole question of people having assurance that their payments will be made in something with stable value … ultimately links back to what we call fiat currency, which has a link to the state.”
Bailey noted that this can be organized in several ways which is where innovation comes in, naming stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as examples. Like other central banks, the British central bank has been looking into issuing its own central bank digital currency.
Bailey also pointed out that the appropriate level of privacy for digital currencies was likely to be hotly debated. He was quoted as saying, “This is a big one that is coming on to the landscape, the whole question of a privacy standard for transactions made in any form of digital currency, and where the public interest lies.”
Godfrey Bloom, a British politician who served as a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014, commented on Bailey’s crypto remarks. He tweeted:
Bitcoin strikes terror into the hearts of central bankers. Every time you buy bitcoin or gold coin they know it is another nail in their corrupt coffin.
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