Global Unification on Cryptocurrency?

Just this week there was a global forum called G20 and it is made of up 19 countries and the European Union. These 19 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. During the event, the countries discussed cryptocurrency regulations. This could be a step toward international policies on cryptocurrency.

Source: Motherboard
According to Coindesk, Argentina Central Bank chair Frederico Sturzenegger announced in a press conference that they had set a hard deadline on July. At the deadline, they would know what "data" was needed to work on a policy to regulate cryptocurrency. However, despite Sturzenegger's words, the Brazil Central Bank president Ilan Goldfajn clarified that Brazil would not regulate cryptocurrency. This could pose a threat to regulation due to the anonymity of cryptocurrency as well as the global nature of the currency. If Brazil doesn't regulate Bitcoin and an anonymous buyer purchases some in a country that does have laws on cryptocurrency, it would be difficult for regulators to prove the buyer wasn't from Brazil if they claimed they were.

From the G20 summit, it can be seen that there is not a lot of agreement on what the threats of cryptocurrency are. According to Coindesk, finance officials from Germany and France discussed the risks of cryptocurrencies for investors while U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and an anonymous Japanese government official discussed the use of cryptocurrency for illegal purposes. Despite the disagreements on the negatives associated with cryptocurrency, there at least were some agreement. According to CCN, the Spanish Minister of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Román Escolano Olivares announced that cryptocurrency is not a threat to the global financial system. However, that does not mean there is nothing to regulate when it comes to cryptocurrency. A decision will have to me made about how or if it will be monitored in order to protect investors as well as to detect illegal uses of it. 

Comments

  1. Annabelle YiMarch 22, 2018 at 7:04 AM

    The funny thing is, at a cryptocurrency convention, they had to decline people paying with crypto currency because it still had "bits to tweak out". The people promoting cryptocurrnecy still favor and prefer real money - the stuff that's regulated by the government. However, if enough people really put value in crypto, it might just become the new currency. I just hope they're prepared for a market crash or virus that might wipe the system.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 22, 2018 at 7:04 AM

    I feel like it has to be an all or nothing approach. Either all countries regulate or all don't because there are going to be a lot of disagreements and problems if some were different then others.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carly SnyderMarch 22, 2018 at 2:27 PM

    I never realized how many countries engaged in this cryptocurrency conversation. Would you mind giving some examples as to the risks and consequences you mentioned for using cryptocurrency? You discussed Germany and France worrying about problems with investors and Japan worrying about illegal usage of cryptocurrency. Also, has the US experienced any problems of the like recently that we may have seen or heard of?

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 22, 2018 at 4:47 PM

    I had no inkling about this conference before reading your post! I am a bit confused, however, (likely due to my inexperience with cryptocurrency): why exactly do we need to regulate cryptocurrency? And what might these laws and regulations look like? Plus, why are so many countries so invested in this discussion, in the first place?

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