The Governor of Spain’s central bank has said that cryptocurrencies present ‘more risks than benefits,’ but believes in the potential of the blockchain.
According to a local report by EuropaPress, Luis María Linde, was speaking earlier this week when he said that:
“In my opinion, their current use (of cryptocurrencies) presents more risks than benefits: they have low acceptance as a means of payment, suffer extreme volatility, present multiple operational vulnerabilities and have been related to fraudulent or illicit activities in many cases.”
In reference to ‘cryptotokens,’ Linde said ‘those spurious novelties that do not provide significant improvements should be tackled as soon as possible.’ However, while he doesn’t appear to have much faith in cryptocurrencies, the central bank’s governor spoke of the potential that the distributed ledger presents, claiming that it ‘offers interesting possibilities.’
Broadly speaking, though, he argued that the digitisation of the financial sector could present ‘great opportunities’ to increase efficiency and improve financial services as a whole. However, he added that this was provided the innovations are ‘well used and managed.’
In recent months the banking world has been turning its attention the the blockchain and the benefits that it holds for the industry.
In March, the managing director at Singapore’s central bank gave a speech talking about the potential the blockchain can deliver with international payments. At the time, Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said that the distributed ledger is ‘suited for applications’ where it’s important to know ownership history, but no trusted central party exists or relying on one is costly and inefficient.
Also in March it was reported that a consortium of Japanese banks will be using the Ripple blockchain to allow consumers to settle transactions quickly through a new smartphone application. Available from autumn 2018, the report said that MoneyTap is the first mobile app of its kind to be developed and used by multiple, different banks in the country.
With the banking industry keen to maximise on the potential of the blockchain more use cases for it are being realised, which will eventually see it revolutionise the banking sector.
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