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The European Central Bank (ECB) does not release a digital currency soon, according to President Mario Draghi.
He argued that blockchain technology is not mature enough for such a level of responsibility and physical money remains widely used within the monetary union
ECB Studies Potential Issuance of Central Bank Digital Currency [19659004] In a letter sent to Jonás Fernández, member of the European Parliament, ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank is analyzing the consequences of issuing a digital currency from the Central Bank and explained why there are no plans to launch one.
"First, technologies that could potentially be used to issue a central bank digital currency, such as the distributed ledger, have not yet been thoroughly tested and require substantial further development before they can be used in a bank context. central. "
"First, technologies that could potentially be used to issue a central bank digital currency, such as the distributed ledger, have not yet been thoroughly tested and require substantial further development before they can be used in a bank context. central. "
In 2016, the use of physical money within the euro money system represented 79 percent of all payments to the point of sale and 54 percent of the total value of these transactions. Non-cash payments grew 7.9% in 2017, according to ECB research
Some countries have announced their plans to launch national cryptocurrencies or have already conducted initial coin offerings (ICOs) to introduce a digital token supported by the state [19659002] Towards the end of February, Venezuela launched Petro, an oil-based currency, which was automatically banned by the United States. Iran has followed the example and announced that it will "implement the country's first cloud-based digital currency" to counter the international sanctions it will tackle ever since US President Trump abandoned the nuclear deal .
China is also moving towards the launch of a national cryptocurrency, although the country is known for having a very strict policy on cryptocurrency trading. In June, Russian Central Bank vice-president Olga Skorobogatova said: "The regulators of all countries agree that it is time to develop national cryptocurrencies, this is the future."
Coincidentally or not, most countries that have announced national cryptocurrencies are run by authoritarian authorities, governments are not enthusiastic about transparency. In June, Bitcoin developer Peter Todd explained that today all currencies are digital and "cryptocurrency is not the ability to move money digitally, it's about auditing".
"In the case of decentralized cryptocurrency, it is about moving money and controlling it without permission, but when you talk about a government currency, obviously there is permission, a central authority and control – the end of history. "
The issuance of digital currencies of the Central Bank is not exclusive to countries in tense relations with the United States. Sweden is considering issuing an electronic version of its currency, called e-krona, while the Bank of England has published a paper on the subject.
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