Christine Lagarde presents a progressive stance on Blockchain
In her speech on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Bank of England’s independence, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde gave her vision on the future of central banks. Her speech was full of optimism and will be considered as a brave and progressive speech in financial industry in recent times.
In a change of stance — she weighed on putting focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. She also focused on how all the Banking and Financial world could embrace it and make it to work in its favour.
Mark Carney (R) and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde (L)
So far cryptocurrency and blockchain attracted a fair amount of skepticism, irritation and regular attacks due to cryptocurrencies threatening traditional financial operations and hence traditional banking jobs. Let’s call it “The biggest Disruption in the financial sector”.
Christine Lagarde’s speech focused on current limitations of blockchain and she tries to realise a future of banking 10- 15 years down the line, in her future she sees Blockchain playing a major role.
IMF Videos - Central Banking and Fintech-A Brave New World? (http://www.imf.org/external/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=5595522478001)
The current issues listed are Hacking of the wallets, Volatility of the cryptocurrency, the energy intensity of Blockchain’s operations and Scalability. However she remained optimistic that these are just technical challenges and can be solved over time.
Moreover, Lagarde touched upon how relatively small countries and economies reliant on the US Dollar will be able to use cryptocurrencies instead, once they are less volatile. She also urges central bankers to remain open to new technological advancements.
Christine Lagarde also stressed the need for a dialogue between regulators, policy makers, investors, financial services companies and nations. She believes that the IMF, with its 189 member countries, is the ideal platform for hosting these discussions, and it can play major role.
PS: You can watch her full speech at Christine Lagard’s Full speech (video) — http://www.imf.org/external/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=5595522478001
— Written by Ash Chauhan (Co-founder of CapeXMove)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ash-chauhan/