The British are, however, not the only country to share negative views on a government-issued cryptocurrency. At a recent FinTech event in Tokyo on April 16, 2018, Masayoshi Amamiya, the Deputy Governor of Japan’s Central Bank told attendees that the bank is no longer interested in developing a government-backed cryptocurrency. Putin’s plan to roll out a cryptocurrency-backed Ruble may also be placed on hold due to the legal and technical limitations of the technology.
Britain’s sentiment towards cryptocurrencies
The British are quite pessimistic when it comes cryptocurrencies. The online survey conducted on April 3, 2018, shows that while 93 percent of British people have heard of Bitcoin, 61 percent expect its value to drop in the next six months.
Despite the popularity of Bitcoin, the British also prefer to invest in other assets like property than purchase cryptocurrencies. According to the survey, 45 percent see the purchasing of property as the best long-term investment, while only 2 percent saw cryptocurrency investing as a viable long-term strategy. Cryptocurrency investing came in as the worst long-term investment.
56% of UK general public wouldn’t invest in cryptocurrency even if the government regulated cryptocurrency exchanges. 33% would be ‘more likely’. See our latest research https://t.co/zQMuPLDc68 #bitcoin #bitcoinnews #bitcoinprice #cryptocurrency pic.twitter.com/0zSxZHd99t
— D-CYFOR (@dcyfor) April 19, 2018
Despite these statistics, the online research used a relatively small sample group of only 1002 adults in the UK. The company has also not released further information like the participants’ demographic details. It’s important to note that surveys with such small numbers may not accurately reflect the views of the wider population.
Government-issued cryptocurrencies
Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England shares similar views with the British public as he too is against the idea of releasing a state-backed cryptocurrency. According to Carney’s speech at the inaugural Scottish Economics Conference, Carney sees cryptocurrencies as “poor stores of value” and an “inefficient media of exchange.”
Amamiya, the Deputy Governor of Japan’s Central Bank, takes this a step further. The Deputy Governor told attendees at the FinTech conference that having a Central bank-backed cryptocurrency can collapse the existing dual-tiered banking system. The Central Bank is currently only available to private banks who service the general public. If there were a Central bank-backed cryptocurrency, people would withdraw their funds from banks at any sign of trouble, causing a catastrophic failure in the financial infrastructure.
Despite these comments, Amamiya also stated that:
“Although the Bank of Japan does not have a plan to issue its own digital currency at this juncture, the Bank fully acknowledges the importance of deeply understanding innovative technologies not only for maintaining financial stability but also for seeking the possibility of applying them to Central Bank infrastructure in the future.”
Like Japan, Putin was bullish about developing a Crypto-Ruble when Bitcoin was a growing global phenomenon. Anton Siluanov, the Russian Minister of Finance, had, however, highlighted some serious concerns with the emerging technology.
“It seems that the creation of a national cryptocurrency with a single emission center is impossible because of the technical features,”
said Siluanov, in an English-translated version of a letter he sent to Putin. Furthermore, not only are their technical concerns, Skorobogatova, the Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia also raised concerns in December 2017 that the introduction of the national digital currency does not seem justified from the point of view of macroeconomics.
