Great Britain wanted to produce his own digital currency: the Treasury of Great Britain and the Bank of England created their own working group to study the issue. According to CNBC, in case of release, it will not replace cash, but only complement them.
“We launch a new Working Group between the Treasury and the Bank of England to coordinate research work on the potential digital currency of the Central Bank,” said the Minister of Finance of Great Britain Rishy Sunak. The decision to introduce a digital pound has not yet been made: now the authorities will study options for its use and possible risks.
The development of digital currencies is engaged in several countries, including Sweden, France, Russia and others. The new impetus was developed by the growth of Bitcoin and the trend on the refusal to use cash as a whole.
Now China is more active. Beijing announced an experiment in which citizens must pay for a temporary refusal of traditional money in favor of digital yuan. It will take part about 50 thousand people, they will be allocated for 200 yuan (31 dollars). In total, citizens will receive ten million yuan (1.5 million dollars).
previously it became known that the PRC authorities thought about the digital yuan had a shelf life. It is assumed that this will help the People’s Bank of China, if necessary, “turn off” electronic money after a certain date to force citizens to part with money and spend more actively for the benefit of the economy.
In April, the Russian Central Bank presented a digital currency introduction plan. It will emissive the Central Bank, as well as the current forms of payment means (cash and non-cash rubles). The digital ruble will be kept on special wallets opened in banks, they will be able to own both individuals and legal entities. The technology for using the Digital Offline Wallet of the Central Bank is still to be developed. Test the prototype is collected next year.
However, the Russians have an initiative yet enthusiasm: more than a third of Russians (38 percent) were not inspired by the idea of introducing a digital ruble and negatively assessed this perspective, 22 percent of them also categorically refused to use such money in the future.