News Bank of England considers digital currency

[Ian]

Ian submitted a new resource:

Bank of England considers digital currency - Is Britcoin on the cards?

The UK Treasury and Bank of England are setting up a "Central Bank Digital Currency" taskforce to investigate creating a digital pound. The rise of cryptocurrency has seen governments around the world take a serious look at how a completely digital financial system may look.

The so-called "BritCoin" would mean that individuals and businesses would be able to hold currency directly with the Bank of England, rather than going through high street bank accounts. The UK is not the first country...

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[TriplexDread]

Don't we have that already?

I call it online banking!

"Britcoin" Really??!

 

[nivrip]

Currencies that use block chain technology are very bad for the environment, using enormous amounts of energy to cool the masses of computers required to keep it all going. Already, China's cryptocurrencies are using more energy than some smaller nations use for everyday living. The Greens will certainly oppose it.

The huge volatility in cryptocurrencys' "value" is enough to put me off investing in them. The day I buy in they will all collapse !!

 

[PCRules]

Avoiding SWIFT is the goal of Britcoin. People complain about Crypto energy use, but never audit total energy used for the SWIFT system. Even worse, the Bankers associated with SWIFT often fly private jets as part of the administration. Be Fair: evaluate the Total Carbon Footprint! A new alternative, modern software, privacy, efficiency and more automated, no bankers flying private jets, is the UnionPay system. An ATM or Credit Swipe can use both UnionPay & SWIFT. SWIFT currency management is experiencing inflation and volatility. UnionPay appears to be headed to a basket of physical assets from grain to gold, free of political judgement. UnionPay cards for Mastercard to American Express are available from Swiss banks and other countries. Its the Messaging System that is upgraded. Something long overdue. This week SWIFT is rising the fees merchants must pay another 25%. In the last decade, SWIFT fees for Merchants has already gone up around 200%.

 

[PCRules]

Currencies that use block chain technology are very bad for the environment, using enormous amounts of energy to cool the masses of computers required to keep it all going. Already, China's cryptocurrencies are using more energy than some smaller nations use for everyday living. The Greens will certainly oppose it.

The huge volatility in cryptocurrencys' "value" is enough to put me off investing in them. The day I buy in they will all collapse !!

Your Credit and Cash card use SWIFT as the messaging protocol. Have we evaluated the total footprint? The bankers associated with it fly private jets. I consider the jets, their offices, their retreats, and their IT as the total footprint. I am not using crypto, but the SWIFT system isn't eco friendly. Then there is stability of the underlying currency and the political instability of some customers, associates or products can be associated with SWIFT sanctions. I won't buy elephant ivory, but recently badly needed fertilizer was included in SWIFT sanctions due to part of the manufacturing "might" have been sourced in a sanctioned country. Had that fertilizer been applied, would that have applied to the wheat it grew? Everything is more volatile in a politically managed system.