Outcome of UK.gov Digital currencies: call for information

Digital currencies: response to the call for evidence


[quote]The government received over 120 responses to the call for information. This document summarises the submissions received and outlines the government’s views and proposed next steps. At Budget 2015, the government is announcing the following:

the government intends to apply anti-money laundering regulation to digital currency exchanges in the UK, to support innovation and prevent criminal use. The government will formally consult on the proposed regulatory approach early in the next Parliament

the government will work with BSI (British Standards Institution) and the digital currency industry to develop voluntary standards for consumer protection

the government is launching a new research initiative which will bring together the Research Councils, Alan Turing Institute and Digital Catapult with industry in order to address the research opportunities and challenges for digital currency technology, and will increase research funding in this area by £10 million to support this

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IMPO those are bad news as it relates to the original goals of cryptocurrencies.

In order words, it’s a continuation of the bad streak of using cryptocurrencies to make the fiat system even worse (all the issues will remain, but it’s going to be even cheaper to run and easier to force it on to the unsuspecting populace).

Having read the whole document, I take the opposite view. I think it’s very encouraging that the UK.gov understand the potential and that they are not stifling it as existing third party authority would want. They appear to have left the future wide open. Having the BoE even consider issuing their own is huge news… it’s an indication they appreciate the potential. What is mooted is expected, it’s unrealistic to not expect KYC and AML where those are appropriate - which is limited to money transport like Ripple. Whether the BoE issue their own GBP; or whether there are pegged assets like bitGBP; or both, doesn’t really matter. It’s all moving in the right direction for more mainstream adoption in a few years. Frankly, I doubt the BoE will want to prove the negative that is their owning the responsibility for issuing GBP… it would be easier to let others like CounterParty issue bitGBP pegged by consensus… BitShares is already offering that and from what’s suggested it seems likely others could do too, without Government interfering.

I hope you’re right. The way things have been going in the US of A is not encouraging at all!