Digital pound sterling

2023

Contract with Nuggets to develop privacy and identification features in the Britcoin system

The Bank of England hired crypto company Nuggets on July 7, 2023 to develop privacy features and identify its digital currency. The organisation's chief executive, Alastair Johnson, said their technology would allow human citizenship checks, operations with government agencies, buying products with age restrictions, and reducing the number of companies collecting and using purchase data. According to the head, the system itself will not know any personal information of the person carrying out the transactions (which is hard to believe).

The financial regulator and the Treasury of Britain determine Britcoin's development strategy. According to analysts, the digital pound is likely to appear no earlier than the second half of the 2020s.

The UK government is first taking measures aimed at ensuring control of existing cryptocurrencies and, at the same time, creating its own convenient alternative.

Hiring staff to develop Britcoin

In the spring of 2023, the British government is preparing the ground for total control of the cryptocurrency market.

At the same time, the British began to create their own digital currency Britcoin. The Bank of England opened recruitment on 8 April 2023 to oversee the development of its project. Unlike bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not backed by a fiat currency or asset, Britcoin is supposed to be pegged to the pound.

2020: Bank of England set to issue CBDC

On July 13, 2020, it became known about the decision of the British central bank to create a national digital currency (CBDC). This was announced by the head of the regulator Andrew Bailey.

According to him, this is a very important project, since it can have a serious impact on both payment policy and society. In a few years, the country will move towards the development of a digital currency in a certain form, he said.

The Bank of England is one of the representatives of a group of major central banks that have come together to study the advantages and disadvantages of introducing national digital currencies into practical use. They acknowledge that their role could change substantially with new technologies and initiatives, such as Facebook's stablecoin payment system project, Libra.

British Central Bank decided to issue a digital pound sterling

Nevertheless, by mid-July 2020, the Bank of England is not ready to fully devote itself to the development of a national digital currency. The Governor of the Central Bank of England added that the issue of digital currency will become an extremely serious topic for reflection and the start of action in this direction. According to him, immersion in this topic is possible after the problems associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus are left behind.

Konstantin Anisimov, executive director of the Cex.io cryptocurrency exchange, reacted to Bailey's statements. He explained that the creation of a digital currency will not only ensure stability in the financial sphere, CBDC will be used to create a more efficient system of international payments. The manager of the trading platform believes that in addition to physical notes, the use of which has significantly decreased since 2006, CBDC could potentially reduce the share of privately issued money in the economy.

This will replace the current network, which the Bank of England itself calls "expensive, slow and opaque," Anisimov added.[1]

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