UK government establishes central bank digital currency task force

[Mr H]

Say goodbye to your cash....it's coming

 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-government-establishes-central-bank-digital-currency-task-force

[Poul Nelb]

"Britain’s Treasury and the Bank of England are weighing the potential creation of a central bank digital currency, reports Bloomberg."

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2021/04/bank-of-england-considering-launching.html

 

[Mr H]

Yes Britcoin....... who on earth would want this trash when they can have the real thing? 1 goes down in value at 10% annum and one goes up 200% per annum.

 

But yes, digital currencies are coming your way

[Oxide]

A rather concerning concept. Another step towards total control over your finances by external powers. After all, they've been talking about cashless societies for decades now.

[bamboozooka]

its all about how private the crypto is.

if it comes from a bank it will be fully trackable.

bitcoin is trackable

monero, wownero and pirate chain are fully private non trackable.

[bamboozooka]

[No1CaresAboutFreedom]

Bank of England deputy governor says a CBDC is 'probable' if public money is to survive

 

Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England for stability, said Thursday that it “looks probable” that the United Kingdom’s central bank will issue a digital currency if public money is to survive the growing expansion of private alternatives.

“We may not be there yet. But it looks probable in the UK that if we want to retain public money capable of general use and available to citizens, the state will need to issue public digital money that can meet the needs of modern-day life,” said Cunliffe on May 13, in a speech to the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a central bank think tank.

The Bank of England, like many of the world’s central banks, has yet to reach an official decision on whether to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In April, the Bank joined up with HM Treasury to form a joint task force to lead its research into the possibility of launching a digital pound. More recently, the Bank began advertising seven roles in a newly-formed CBDC team.

But Cunliffe stressed in his speech that there remain a multitude of risks and potential benefits to be weighed before any decision is taken.

“Introduction of a CBDC would be a very major public project which would have material implications for the financial sector, many parts of the economy and for society more broadly,” he said.

But Cunliffe also reminded listeners of the seeming inevitability of private stablecoins coming to market at scale.

“There is now the very real prospect of non-banks, including the large technology platforms or ‘big techs’, issuing new forms of digital money, such as ‘stablecoins’ for general payment purposes. These are likely to have greater functionality and lower transaction costs than the current commercial bank digital money offering and could quickly attract a large number of users,” he said.

Cunliffe said that the Bank of England would publish a discussion paper on the public policy implications of any shift away from commercial bank money to new forms of digital cash in the next few months.

 

Bank of England, HM Treasury establish new taskforce to explore digital currency

Quick Take

• The Bank of England and HM Treasury have jointly created a CBDC taskforce.
• They will explore a potential digital currency in the U.K.

The Bank of England and HM Treasury have jointly created a taskforce to explore a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the U.K.

Announcing the news on Monday, the two government authorities said they have not yet decided whether to issue a CBDC in the U.K. but will explore its use cases and risks.

They will also evaluate the design features of a CBDC and monitor international CBDC developments to ensure the U.K. "remains at the forefront of global innovation."

"Our vision is for a more open, greener, and more technologically advanced financial services sector," said the country’s finance minister Rishi Sunak. "The steps I've outlined today, to boost growing fintechs, push the boundaries of digital finance and make our financial markets more efficient, will propel us forward."

As part of digitalizing financial services, firms exploring blockchain technology will also get access to a new sandbox to improve financial market infrastructure.

As for CBDC, if issued, it would exist alongside cash and banknotes rather than replacing them, said the two authorities.

The taskforce will be co-chaired by Bank of England's deputy governor for financial stability Jon Cunliffe and HM Treasury's director general of financial services Katharine Braddick. The two agencies will also involve other U.K. authorities as appropriate, they said.

The Bank of England appears to be all in on CBDC. It has also created a new CBDC unit, a CBDC engagement forum, and a CBDC technology forum.

The CBDC unit will lead the central bank's internal and external coordination around potential digital currency. The engagement forum will focus on non-technical aspects of a CBDC, such as its use cases, roles of public and private sectors in a CBDC system, and data and privacy implications. The technology forum, on the other hand, will focus on understanding the technological challenges of designing, implementing, and operating a CBDC.

The new initiatives come a year after the Bank of England issued a discussion paper on digital currency. At the time, the central bank said it is interested in CBDC because "this is a period of significant change in money and payments."

Last year, the Bank of England also created a group with five other central banks – the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank of Sweden, and the Swiss National Bank to explore potential uses cases for CBDCs.

Central banks around the world are exploring digital currencies, as The Block's recent CBDC report noted. The European Central Bank also formed a high-level taskforce on CBDC last year. The ECB, however, has not yet decided to issue digital euro. China’s digital yuan, on the other hand, is almost ready to launch.

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Owl]

Topic merged with existing one.

 

Please don't start a new topic when an existing one covers the same subject.

 

[Connor]

This post (https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/banking/central-bank-digital-currencies-may-increase-financial-inclusion-but-are-a-headache-for-lenders-1.1227329) headlines our opportunity to create a more distributed and decentralised financial economy. 

 

The money which retail Banks are using to lend to consumers are currently backed by individual fiat deposits. If we had a CBDC system we could have a run on retail lenders dumping the "big guy" in the process. 

 

Many banks would go bust if everyone started putting their money into a CBDC. Dumping the amount of money held in deposits at retail institutions would decrease their ability to produce profit. 

 

We have to see this opportunity that will be available to create a more decentralised banking system which empowers the majority of individuals. We have to believe that we will be successful in creating a new financial system to acheive our goals of breaking out and creating a better system than the one we are currently compliant with.

[Mr H]

You could create a run on a bank already. If everyone just took out 10k or whatever they'd be fk'd. They ain't go no real dough, they lent it all  out on the fractional reserve.