UK Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak suggested to the Bank of England to contemplate the creation of a “Britcoin”, reports Reuters. The minister announced the creation of a new working group of the Treasury and the Bank of England, which will work on the issue of establishing a central bank digital currency.
The Bank of England explicitly stated that digital currency could become a new form of capital for households and businesses, although it will not replace cash and non-cash, but rather exist alongside them. The regulator stressed that the concluding decision on the design of the CBDC has not been produced so far.
The president of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, previously asserted that Bitcoin could not be a secure store of value or an efficient instrument for conducting transactions. In his words, the leading cryptocurrency is incompatible to use as a payment tool and represents a too risky investment.
Currently, China is the most likely candidate to issue its own virtual currency. A pilot examination of the digital yuan started in the country back in October 2020. In early April, it was revealed that the digital yuan could obtain an “expiration date”, which would enable the People’s Bank of China to “turn off” virtual coins after a particular date, inspiring people to promptly spend money to support the economy growth.
We remind that the developments around potential state digital currency in the UK started fairly recently.
