Key facts:
For the director of the IMF, stablecoins are not up to par with CBDCs.
100 countries are exploring CBDCs in different phases, says the IMF.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated in a recent report that, although central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are in an experimental phase, they can provide greater stability and security than cryptoactives such as bitcoin (BTC). ).
“If CBDCs are designed prudently, they can potentially offer more resiliency, more security, higher availability, and lower costs than private forms of digital money,” the report says. document by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF.
Georgieva compares what she considers the advantages of CBDCs, with cryptocurrencies, using old arguments like crypto assets are unbacked and “inherently volatile”. He even believes that CBDCs can be superior to stablecoins.
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“The best managed and regulated stablecoins may not measure up to a well-designed central bank stablecoin digital currency,” the official said.
These statements were made even recognizing that CBDCs are at an early stage of development. “We don’t know exactly how far and how fast they will go,” Georgieva said.
The report highlights that there are 100 countries exploring CBDCs at different levels. Some are in the research phase, others are undergoing tests, and others are already distributing central bank digital currencies to the public.
Bitcoin is capable of solving historical problems of fiat money
The IMF’s stance on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is not as radical as it was a few years ago. In any case, Georgieva’s words show that they still see them out of the corner of their eyes.
However, Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of the Strike payment gateway, was able to argue before the IMF itself, last December, that Bitcoin is capable of solving the problems that international monetary transactions backed by the financial institution have dragged on for years.
Among the words of Mallers collected by CriptoNoticias, the renowned bitcoiner said that the current process of cross-border transactions depends on many intermediaries between those who send and receive. That produces slowness and raises costs. Contrary to the Bitcoin network that can improve that through the Lightning Network.
All this is due to the fact that the Bitcoin network is decentralized, that is, it eliminates the need to involve trusted third parties since the transactions are carried out by users directly between them.
On the other hand, Bitcoin is “global money, valued the same everywhere, at all times by everyone in the world; it is not localized, it is an open system, it is a monetary policy that is defended by a distributed network of peers,” Mallers said.
Unlike what happens with fiat money (even in its digital version such as CBDCs) to Bitcoin there is no government that can take it and exchange it; it works 24/7, is reliable, and is decentralized enough to survive on its own.
Additionally, there is no risk that a financial institution can block third party accounts in that digital system. All of the above can be considered as a strength, compared to digital currencies of central banks that are barely in full development.