Does Britcoin have a future? Central Bank Digital Currencies have a moment
DIGITAL CURRENCIES
Whenever people have explained to me how digital currencies are going to revolutionize the world, are in the process of doing so, or have already revolutionized it, a little voice in the back of my head has always said: if this was actually true, governments would have stepped in to stop them.
Establishing a monopoly on issuing coins was one of the earliest steps princes took for a reason, in that it’s both incredibly important, and extremely lucrative, and it’s hard to see how powerful countries would just surrender all that because, you know, blockchain and stuff. Governments as a rule are not in the business of surrendering power.
China has long been an outlier here, however, with the digital renminbi being in development since 2014. It has been tested in multiple cities, and was used at the Winter Olympics with some success. However, the nature of China, with its strict restrictions on capital exports, as well as strict restrictions on everything else, meant that its reasons for creating a so-called Central Bank Digital Currency didn’t really apply to more open countries.
(Incidentally: when I worked at Reuters we had special stickers on our desks to remind us to make sure we hadn’t mixed up billions and millions, but we regularly did it anyway. On which note, ouch, I’m glad that correction wasn’t one of mine.)