Cryptocurrency: What Rishi Sunak’s ‘Britcoin’ could mean for you | Personal Finance | Finance
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Earlier in the year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak created a team of officials from the Bank of England and the Treasury to examine the pros and cons of such an endeavour.
However, Mr Sunak clarified the new currency would not replace cash, but will simply coexist as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
As opposed to the average decentralised cryptocurrency, CBDC’s use technology to represent a country’s official currency in digital form and are regulated by a government’s monetary authority.
Mr Sunak explained: “Any potential UK CBDC would exist as a complement to cash and bank deposits, and not a replacement.
“We know that cash remains vital for millions of people and are fully committed to ensuring people across the UK can continue to access it.”
“But, we haven’t seen any major country at scale adopt cryptocurrency as a legal currency.”
Mr Ting wants to emphasise to the public there is a meaningful difference between cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, versus a CBDC.
“That, of course, is separate from the question of a CBDC, which is basically a central bank-backed stable coin,” he explained.
“We’re very interested in some of the innovations that are happening. The Chinese test case has been fascinating to watch. The US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and their test case, has also been interesting.
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“I want to emphasise there is a meaningful difference between cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin versus a CBDC, like RedCoin.”
Mr Ting and his team believe cryptocurrencies offer a range of benefits to improving people’s personal finances, however said benefits are more likely to be reaped in years to come.
“If you were to ask someone, “Why would I use crypto to pay at a restaurant or buy a house?”, I think most people would agree the reality is it’s not better or worse. It’s more about looking towards the future benefits,” he explained.
Speaking to Express.co.uk exclusively, Mr Ting shared his thoughts on why Britons will benefit from the country’s upcoming crypto revolution.
Faster to be refunded on transactions
Addressing the difficulty many have in being properly refunded on goods and services, the crypto expert cited the currency’s “better settlement” as offering a great assistance in this regard.
“In regards to better settlement with a typical transaction, when you buy a slice of pizza, it’s super easy to spend your money. It’s super easy to part with your money. But what if you get food poisoning and you want your money back,” he said.
“With the traditional system, it is going to take two to three days for that money to get charged back to your credit card.
“That’s because the insistency of us being able to part with our money is backed up by a settlement process that takes days. However, that doesn’t exist in crypto. We should be looking forward to better settlement in real time.”
Allows for easier cross-border payments
Due to the often unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies, Mr Ting outlined why this new form of currency allows for smoother cross-border transactions.
Mr Ting explained: “Right now our personal finance is optimised for things that are geographically close to us. It’s super easy to spend in our neighbourhood, even in our country.
“But as the world becomes more globalised, we have lots of family members and connections overseas. The further they are, the harder it is to send money to them.
“Crypto also solves this. The fact that currency and foreign exchanges extract lots of fees every time we try to do those kinds of transactions really rubs me the wrong way. Crypto will help with that.”
Embraces the future
According to Mr Ting, crypto is better equipped to deal with the digital infrastructure and financial issues facing millions of people across the world today. The sooner people jump on the bandwagon, the better.
“Where’s crypto in the big picture of things? The reality is crypto is part of the web revolution. When you think about crypto, think of a Russian nesting doll. It’s crypto inside of the web, which is inside of computing,” he explained.
“Where web and computing are headed is a world, in regards to online and offline, there’s no longer a distinction. In that kind of a seamless digital world, traditional finance is going to have a harder time keeping up. Crypto can do a better job helping people keep up.”
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