Will The Bank of England Offer a Bitcoin-Style Cryptocurrency? (NASDAQ)

Will The Bank of England Offer a Bitcoin-Style Cryptocurrency?
January 02, 2018, 04:03:00 AM EDT By Nick Cawley, DailyFX


DailyFX.com -

Bitcoin Talking Points

- A Bitcoin-style digital currency is being actively investigated by the UK central bank.

- A new level of legitimacy but how will Bitcoin compare to a central bank digital token?

Bank of England Cryptocurrency Research Continues Apace

The Bank of England's (BoE) multi-year research program into the implications of a central bank backed digital currency could add another layer of respectability to the cryptocurrency space but may have other implications for market heavyweight Bitcoin (BTC).

According to a release on the BoE's website, if a central bank issued a digital currency, "everyone including businesses, households and financial institutions other than banks", could make payments and store money digitally in addition to making payments in cash. And this could have far reaching implications for monetary policy and financial stability, according to the UK central bank. One of the main attractions/criticisms of Bitcoin and other altcoin payment tokens is that money is able to be moved around digitally away from the control of the central bank. A BoE backed digital currency would give the central bank more oversight of money flows while giving the user all the speed and efficiency advantages of the underlying blockchain technology.
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