With more than 30 percent of UK GDP dependent on the city of London now is the time for the BoE, as a leading financial center, to take a leadership role to protect the interests of the capital.
But at the recent meet up at Cambridge University, called “Bitcoin and Beyond: The Alan Turing Institute Cryptocurrencies Workshop,” representatives from the BoE revealed that they remain reluctant to take a position on cryptocurrencies other than a bland statement, “Let's wait until after Brexit.”
Frankly, it’s not good enough. The Bank of England puts 2 mln London jobs at risk by not providing direction to the cryptocurrency sector.
In contrast, the European Central Bank delivers a clear and definitive statement on Blockchain.
In a speech given by ECB Board Member Yves Mersch at the Handelsblatt Bank Technology Conference on Dec. 6, he gave a clear indication that the ECB are in favor of embracing the Distributed Ledger technology that is Blockchain.
Quantitative easing forever
Does this apathy once again place the spotlight on the role of the BoE other than pushing quantitative easing, a process of printing more money, the impact of which is set to continue to devalue our pensions and savings.?
London is a global financial services hub delivering first-rate capital markets, insurance and banking with a 700-year historic foundation.
Brexit is seen by many countries as an opportunity to take business away from London, to dilute its power as other countries think the UK is on the back foot, and more importantly, recognize that cryptocurrencies offer another opportunity to chip away at London’s business.
Bumpy years ahead
The city of London expects BoE to provide leadership and offer direction given that most sovereign states have already committed to cryptocurrencies and also wants it to be the first sovereign nation to issue debt on Blockchain, given its many advantages and eight decimals places with which to bring more investors into the tent.
With more than 25 central banks dealing with negative interest rates, and with the likes of the BoE and the Federal Reserve not providing clarity, are we seeing the start of the ultimate demise of fractional reserve banking, which may open the door for cryptocurrencies even wider?
For the central banks, we are in new territory and if they don’t do something soon global markets will have no option but to move to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as a safe haven.
Stand by your beds it is going to be a bumpy few years.