Bank of Canada: “Now is the wrong time to issue a state cryptocurrency”

According to Timothy Lane, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, the regulatordoes not plan to releaseown cryptocurrency, at least until the massive success of projects such as Libra.

The official opinion of the Bank of Canada Lane expressed ina speech entitled “Money and Payments in the Digital Age”. In it, he spoke about the approach of the Central Bank to the idea of ​​creating digital currencies. Although the regulator was enthusiastic about the possibility of issuing a state cryptocurrency, after a pilot project, it was decided to abandon this idea.

“We decided that now is the wrong time forissuing state cryptocurrency. Canadians will continue to use the current payment system, which can be upgraded if necessary, ”said Lane.

However, the position of the Bank of Canada may change incase of large-scale success of private cryptocurrencies. The deputy chairman of the Central Bank called the main threat the Libra project, developed by the social network Facebook.

“It is difficult to predict whether Libra will be able to fulfill its promises and whether the project will be launched. But this is a good example of how developing technologies can affect the work of banks, ”said Lane.

Bank of Canada will continue to work with governmentsdifferent countries, as well as with the provincial authorities of Canada. According to Lane, even if in the future Canada refuses to use cash and switches to cryptocurrencies, the generally applicable digital currency "must be issued by an organization that puts the interests of society above its profit."

Not so long ago the Bank of Canada jointly centralbanks in the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, as well as the ECB and the Bank for International Settlements, announced the creation of a task force to study state digital currencies.

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