In a transcript of a cancelled speech released online today, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney cited a "central bank digital currency" as a development that could result from its ongoing distributed ledger proof-of-concepts.
The remarks come as global central banks begin to experiment openly with distributed ledgers, a technology inspired by the decentralized, public ledgers used to run cryptocurrencies. But, whereas bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies perhaps sought to create wholly new financial systems, distributed ledger projects are aimed at reducing settlement times and enhancing security in traditional financial environments, a context that colored Carney's statements.
In his remarks, Carney stressed that such a transition to these new tools was unlikely to happen in the immediate future, calling a central bank-issued digital currency an "extreme" possibility.
http://www.coindesk.com/bank-england-blockchain-digital-currency/
