RBA muses on digital Aussie dollar
The Reserve Bank has raised the prospect of issuing a truly digital Aussie dollar supported by blockchain.
Tony Richards, the central bank's head of payments policy, said
central banks, including the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Peoples Bank of China, are exploring digital versions of their national currency.
"In the more distant future it is possible that we may see a digital version of the Australian dollar," he said.
He said it is unlikely that private, virtual currencies like Bitcoin could ever replace "well established, low inflation national currencies within individual economies" due to its high volatility.
"Bitcoin has, however, served to stimulate interest in the potential of distributed ledgers extending to the possibility of central bank issued digital currencies."
It could involve the RBA still issuing the currency and possibly still involve banks distributing it.
But some suggest a distributed ledger could be held on everyone's digital device to verify the cash, perhaps doing away with the need for banks to hold the currency.
Nigel Dobson, ANZ Bank's head of group payments management said most banks think they already have a digital currency, but if it should no longer be held by them, regulators would still need to oversee it.
"A digital currency issued by a central bank may not be held in a bank account," he told the Payments Innovation conference in Sydney on Tuesday. "But I guarantee you that digital wallet will have to be transparent and regulated for the purposes of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and so on."
Mr Richards said there are still security and authentication problems to overcome and he questioned whether a fully digital currency would be superior to notes and coins.
"The bank will be interested to see what proves to be possible and what proves to be problematic," he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/bank...on-digital-aussie-dollar-20160223-gn11t5.html
