WIREDGOV

Future of Digital Currencies is a crucial contribution to the current debate around digital currencies and serves as a vital resource for both the public sector and industry when considering the impact that digital currencies will have on the payments landscape in the months and years to come. The report encourages industry and the public sector to ensure the design and delivery of digital currencies brings both security and value to consumers.  

Understanding the existing landscape is critical to developing new solutions. Future of Digital Currencies provides the context for exploring digital currencies by commenting on the role of currencies and payments. 

There are different forms of digital currencies, detailed in the white paper, from crypto to stable coins. Our view is that fully assessing the benefits and risks associated with each form of digital currencies is critical for consumer security and to enable continued innovation in financial services.

The current environment, as well as the proposed launch of new private led initiatives, has stimulated debate across the globe, with regulators taking a vivid interest in regulating digital currencies. We welcome this increased involvement and interest from the public sector and hope this paper can provide a basis for wider discussions and precipitate the next phases for digital currencies.

With this paper we recommend that interested parties:

• engage in conversations and collaborate to see how new technologies can help transform the payments landscape
• look beyond technology underpinnings of payments
• investigate how roadblocks around Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering can be innovated to improve payments
• further develop the business cases for wider adoption

The paper was developed by techUK’s Distributed Ledger Working Group, with crucial contributions from Rodger Oates, Consulting Partner, BFSI, and Suresh Raghava, Industry Advisor, BFSI, both of Tata Consultancy Services UK.

Commenting on the launch of the white paper, Matthew Evans, Director of Markets, techUK, said: 

“We have seen interest and debates on digital currencies really taking off over the last 12 months. We look forward to engaging with industry and regulators on the development of concrete use cases. This paper aims to serve as a vital resource to understanding the current landscape and a basis for discussion on how digital currencies can transform the way we receive, store and move money in the future.” 

Raghava Suresh Samudrala, Industry Advisor, BFSI, Tata Consultancy Services, commented: 

“To look beyond the hype, we need to focus on the business value, user experience, regulation and financial stability aspects of digital currencies. Central bank digital currencies are new payment rails and the cost of building a large ecosystem of users and merchants cannot be underestimated.”

Rodger Oates, Chair of techUK’s Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group and Consulting Partner, BFSI, at Tata Consultancy Services UK, commented: 

"Digital Currencies are as key to the digital future as railways were to the first industrial revolution; however key questions need to be addressed on risk, ownership, connectivity, and user acceptance."

Read the full paper here: Future of Digital Currencies