Bank of England could issue own digital currency

From Finextra –

“Like its counterparts in the US, the Bank of England is pondering the implications of issuing its own digital currency.

The potential of a central bank-backed digital currency is touched on with the publication of the BofE's 'One Bank Research Agenda' - a wide-ranging framework to transform the way research is done at the Bank.”

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FEDCOIN a possible US government cryptocurrency

Senior Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis researcher David Andolfatto has put forward the idea of a US government-backed 'Fedcoin' that uses a bitcoin-style protocol but the US dollar as the monetary object. This would combine the best of a cryptocurrency and cash.

Read his blogpost “Fedcoin: On the Desirability of a Government Cryptocurrency” or watch his presentation at the “P2P Financial Systems 2015” at the Bundesbank Frankfurt am Main Germany on 29th January 2015 (below).

'Bit-what?' Most Americans clueless about cryptocurrency, study finds

From Mobile Payments Today –

“Coin Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy center focused on public policy issues around cryptocurrency technologies such as bitcoin, has released data from its first Bitcoin Public Sentiment Survey.

The survey — "the first of its kind," according to a press release — measures Americans' perceptions about bitcoin. This initial study was based on five months of survey data collected between the beginning of September 2014 and the end of January 2015.

Approximately 65 percent of respondents in the survey said they're not at all familiar with bitcoin. Of those who do know something about the currency, more than 80 percent said they've never used it.”

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The Fed Backs Away from Bitcoin for Real-Time Payments

From Payments Source –

“The Federal Reserve appears to have looked at Bitcoin as a potential set of rails for real-time payments in the banking system but shelved the concept for now.

The agency’s white paper on improving the payments system, released Monday, coins a new euphemism for Internet cryptocurrencies (of which Bitcoin is by far the best known): "Digital Value Transfer Vehicles." These are defined as "decentralized digital stores of value that can be exchanged."

One such transfer vehicle, which goes unnamed in the paper, "was not considered a sufficiently mature technology at this time, but was identified for further exploration and monitoring given significant interest in the marketplace," the Fed said. Of the hundreds of cryptocurrencies that have sprouted up in the last few years, we're pretty sure the Fed is not referring to HoboNickels or PhilosopherStone.”

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Bitcoin - The magic of mining

From The Economist –

“A huge aircraft hangar in Boden, in northern Sweden, big enough to hold a dozen helicopters, is now packed with computers—45,000 of them, each with a whirring fan to stop it overheating. The machines (pictured) work ceaselessly, trying to solve fiendishly difficult mathematical puzzles. The solutions are, in themselves, unimportant. Yet by solving the puzzles, the computers earn their owners a reward in bitcoin, a digital “crypto-currency”.

The machines in Boden are in competition with hundreds of thousands more worldwide. The first to solve a puzzle earns 25 bitcoins, currently worth $6,900. Since bitcoin’s invention in 2008 by a mysterious figure calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto, people have increasingly traded it for real money, albeit at a wildly varying price (see chart). Although there are only $3.8 billion-worth of them in circulation—about twice the value of Paraguayan guaraníes in use—bitcoins have three useful qualities in a currency: they are hard to earn, limited in supply and easy to verify.”

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Instead of Fighting Bitcoin, the US Could Make Its Own Digital Currency

From WIRED

“The US government has been seriously studying bitcoin for about two years now. The FBI knows how to seize the digital currency. The Marshal’s Service knows how to sell it. The IRS knows how to tax it. And now, the Federal Reserve should copy it.

So says James Angel, a professor of economics at Georgetown University. He thinks the government should create what he calls “bitdollar,” a bitcoin-like digital currency that’s backed by the US dollar.”

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