Portugal’s Central Bank Governor: Bitcoin Isn’t a CurrencyHélder Rosalino, the governor of Portugal’s Central bank, Banco de Portugal (BdP), recently spoke to Portuguese publication ECO about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and Fintech in general. To Rosalino, it’s important that people know “a cryptocurrency isn’t a currency” to Portugal’s central bank.
To the financial institution’s governor, a currency needs to both store value and have the ability to be used as credit. Per Rosalino, when a central bank issues currency, it’s creating a liability on its balance sheet that needs to be paid. He stated (roughly translated):
A currency, to be classified as such, needs to have two fundamental characteristics: The first is to associate itself with the idea of store of value, then, on that currency there must be a right to credit. When a central bank creates a currency, it creates a liability on its balance sheet that has to be paid. If, one day, everyone was to hand that currency over to their banks, than the central bank would have to pay, and the liability would be eliminated.
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/portugals-central-bank-governor-bitcoin-isnt-a-currency/
