“The problem with bitcoin is that it could easily blow up and central banks could then be accused of not doing anything,” European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny told Reuters. For these reasons, and given their low adoption by retailers, central banks have dismissed cryptocurrencies as risky commodities with no bearing on the real economy.
Russia’s central bank said it would block websites selling bitcoin and its rivals while the ECB told European Union lawmakers last year “they should not seek.. to promote the use of virtual currencies” because these could “in principle affect the central banks’ control over the supply of money” and inflation. The ECB, the Bank of Japan and Germany’s Bundesbank are already testing blockchain, admitting it may have a future use for the settling of payments.
For this reason, Swiss banking giant UBS is leading a consortium of six banks trying to create its own digital cash equivalent of each of the major currencies backed by central banks. Some central banks such as Sweden’s Riksbank and the Bank of England are also looking at the merits of introducing their own digital currency.
A central bank digital currency (CBDC) could also change the way monetary policy is carried out by allowing central banks to inject liquidity directly into the real economy, bypassing the financial sector, if they want to boost inflation. A senior Bank of Japan (BOJ) official said on Wednesday that although technology is revolutionising banking, digital currencies will not replace physical money anytime soon.
https://www.reuters.com/article/bitcoin-cenbank-banks/analysis-bubble-or-breakthrough-bitcoin-keeps-central-bankers-on-edge-idUSKBN1DR0N6
