Cryptocurrency may have been completely unknown for most people around half a decade ago, and most of the banks in the world did not even take it seriously. However, things have changed dramatically over the past few years, and many banks are now considering the possibility of launching their own digital currencies.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) announced its own cryptocurrency last month, while American banking giant J. P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM) has come up with its own as well, and in a new development, it has emerged that the Chinese central bank is close to releasing its own. According to the report, a senior representative of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has stated that the bank is now close to launching its own digital currency.
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The deputy director of the payments department at the PBOC, Mu Changchun, stated that the cryptocurrency that the department has been working on is now almost ready. It is a significant development and one that could have far-reaching consequences for the crypto sphere at large. It is believed that the PBOC’s researchers have been hard at work with regards to the digital currency for around half a decade. The central theme of the research was to come up with a currency that could be used as a substitute for cash. In this regard, it is interesting to note that there are other central banks that are exploring similar possibilities.
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Reports suggest that the issuing authority in the case of these digital tokens is going to lie with both the PBOC as well as the various commercial banks in the country. That being said, the PBOC has been a bit vague regarding the technology that is being used to produce the cryptocurrency. The central bank stated that it is not going to be solely dependent on blockchain technology in order to produce the coin. In fact, it is open to the idea of exploring the usage of other technologies.
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