While Asian jurisdictions work on choking the life out of cryptocurrencies, the U.K. is said to be developing a new digital tender.
A research unit set up by the Bank of England is investigating the potential introduction of a cryptocurrency linked to sterling, according to an article in the «Sunday Telegraph».
The report claims the new digital currency could allow Britons to keep their money in digital form with the central bank, dispensing with the need for a retail bank. Large ticket transactions, such as buying a house, could happen in nanoseconds.
New Taxes on Digital Currency Profits
The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said recently that he had held talks with other central banks about launching digital currency.
Meanwhile across the Asia Pacific and amid frenzied trading of bitcoin and warnings of a bubble bursting, regulators in the region are on the back foot, with at least one country considering new taxes on digital currency profits.
IMF Chief is Open Minded
The trend underscores growing wealth in Asia, where an emerging middle class increasingly wants to invest for retirement, for example, as well as spend. Bitcoin fills an investment niche for this segment of wealth, which probably cannot afford overheated property prices or want to buy stocks at current, rich value.
In October last year addressing an audience of central bankers at the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Christine Lagard extolled the virtues of virtual currencies as an alternative to traditional currency.
