Cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiasts took notice when the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney spoke at a conference recently, and presented an open minded view on the adoption of digital assets. Carney has been known to speak negatively about cryptocurrency in the past and flatly said that “cryptocurrency has failed
thus far” in February. Carney said that he still doesn’t view cryptocurrency as a good way to store value because of the instability of the market.
“The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users,” Carney said about the use of cryptocurrencies. “The short answer is they are failing.”
Carney does however see a future for the technology. According to the Bank of England leader, in order for adoption of cryptocurrency to take place in the future, a Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC would need to be created.
Although Carney is not predicting the adoption of cryptocurrency any time soon, a digital asset backed by a governmental body would help to stabilize the market and lead to a wider use, which could propel the technology and allow for more confidence among users.
The central theme of Carney’s address was trust and how both the value of money and the business of banking depend on trust. Carney spoke of the present and future of the banking world and alluded to the fact that the way people use money and financial institutions could be completely different than what we have known in the past, and added “the future of central banking may involve fewer central bankers.”
This is another step in the evolution of Carney’s acceptance of cryptocurrency who has also walked backed previous harsh warnings about bitcoin saying that cryptocurrencies do not pose a serious risk.
The conference was hosted by Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, who happens to be working on the implementation of a CBDC for Sweden. Riksbank has been working on a country-wide crypto since 2016 and use of cash has been dramatically decreasing among Sweden’s citizens.
Hearing the governor of the Bank of England talk about “fewer central bankers” and the use of central bank digital currencies at a conference hosted by an organization trying to create an “e-krona” to be the digital assets of a nation is a sign of the coming wave of electronic assists that is about to disrupt multiple industries.
