EU Report Says that Central Banks Are Likely Safe from Cryptocurrency

The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) has released a 30-page report on cryptocurrency entitled “Virtual currencies and central banks monetary policy challenges ahead”. It concludes that cryptocurrency is unlikely to take the place of fiat currency, even in the long term. 

ECON is the body to which the European Central Bank is accountable. It is currently chaired by Roberto Gualtieri of Italy. 

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The report was written by Marek Dabrowski and Lukasz Janikowski of the Center for Social and Economic Research, which is a non-profit research institution in Warsaw.

Bitcoin experiment survived

The paper begins by stating that contrary to the expectations of many, the Bitcoin experiment has not only survived but expanded beyond niche status. It identifies the 2017 bubble as being responsible for attracting so much interest. 

 After examining the technology behind the three top cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Ethereum and Ripple  the authors conclude that virtual currencies have no intrinsic value “in the sense that they are not linked to any underlying commodity or sovereign currency,” but it also recognises that fiat currencies share this characteristic. 

 The classic definition of money is that it should be 

1.  A means of payment
2.  A unit of account
3.  A store of value

Some argue that cryptocurrencies do not or only very partially fulfil these criteria. The report however recognises their potential to eventually do so, and says that this possibility cannot be excluded. 

 As evidence of this it notes that a few major companies accept cryptocurrency as payment although one of the mentioned companies, Expedia, has since discontinued this option. 

 Advantages of cryptocurrencies, it says, include financial inclusion and the exclusion of the possibility of identity theft. However the technical knowhow required to use cryptocurrency is a considerable barrier in itself, and anonymity precludes protection from theft. 

 It points out that the advantages of cryptocurrency payments speed, cost and 24 hour availability are things that traditional payment systems could offer too, given technological advances. 

Can virtual currency break the monopoly of the central banks?

 The report argues that cryptocurrency is fundamentally private money, and past experiments with private money such as during the free banking era in the US in the 19th century  failed for a number of reasons. It echoes arguments made recently by Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert J. Shiller of Yale University. 

 One is that currencies lacked network externality  that is, recognition by external  economic agents. This is necessary to create a financial market.  Private currencies have always struggled to do this while in competition with other private currencies, which was invariably the situation where private currencies are permitted and in vogue. 

 Moreover, there are always de facto exchange rates between the private currencies, making them volatile and expensive to use. 

 Jurisdictions found a need to create a stable, single domestic market for goods and services: “Country after country established central banks and gradually granted them regulatory powers over private commercial banks, the role of a lender of last resort and the central monetary authority with dominant or even exclusive rights to issue national currencies.” 

 The report says that some crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin, may be able to overcome some of these disadvantages. To compare them to failed money experiments of the past is limited: “unlike previous incarnations, issuers of contemporary private money are able to ensure a transparent mechanism that is relatively safe, fast and inexpensive virtual currencies have a better chance to survive and develop as compared to their predecessors in the 18th and 19th century.” 

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