Bahamas Has Plans To Launch A State-Backed Cryptocurrency; Blockchain CEO Believes Bitcoin Adoption Will Take A Long Time; U.S. Lawmaker Calls For A “Light Touch” Regulatory Framework For ICOs
According to News BTC, the central bank of the Bahamas has announced that it is going to launch a pilot to test a state-backed digital currency. Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest made the announcement at a conference stating,
“The production of a modern fully digital payment service is the way forward for this era of governance.”
Currently, the Bahamas uses both the Bahamian Dollar and the U.S. Dollar as the currencies there. The Bahamian dollar is pegged to the value of the USD at a 1:1 ratio. The hope is that the creation of a digital currency can allow for a truly native dollar to reflect the islands 9 billion USD gross domestic product.
According to News BTC, the CEO of Blockchain Peter Smith says that users should stay in the market “for the long haul”. Smith said that the growth of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry will “take a long time” so users should be prepared to wait for a while.
In a tweet, Smith wrote:
It is easy to focus on the fluctuation of this or that crypto-asset and to miss the big picture. We are only beginning to grasp the seismic nature of the changes induced by ubiquitous, secure, decentralised ledgers and the quasi-instantaneous clearing they make possible.
Smith also writes:
Investors should only invest if they believe in the long-term vision of creating a global, stateless, opt-in financial system. They should also be prepared to hold their position for a very long time. I know I am.
According to CCN, U.S. representative Warren Davidson said that a “light touch” regulatory framework for ICOs is necessary. Davidson is part of the House Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives.
Davidson said, “We want to make sure that the United States’ capital markets stay strong and vibrant, and one of the ways to do that is provide regulatory certainty.”
He clarified by stating:
*“Right now there’s a concern that there’s regulatory arbitrage going on, where launching an initial public offering is more complicated and expensive, and essentially companies are doing white papers instead of securities offerings, and they are essentially selling securities…We want to protect that market…
Blockchain is truly transformative, perhaps in a way the Internet was, in terms of how the distributed ledger can be applied to a broad range of technologies. And so that’s why you don’t really know when somebody does an initial coin offering whether they’re really launching this great distributed ledger project that is going to be a security or if it looks a little different like Ether and bitcoin have been determined to be essentially commodities.”*
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