BoE's Carney says Bitcoin has 'pretty much failed' as currency

[webfact]

BoE's Carney says Bitcoin has 'pretty much failed' as currency

David Milliken

 

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks during the central bank's quarterly inflation report press conference in the City of London, Britain, February 8, 2018. REUTERS/Victoria Jones/Pool

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin BTC=BTSP has failed as a currency measured by standard benchmarks, and is neither a store of value nor a useful way to buy things, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Monday.

 

“It has pretty much failed thus far on ... the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange,” Carney told students at London’s Regent’s University.

 

But the crypto-currency’s underlying technology may still prove useful as a way to verify financial transactions in a decentralised way, he added in response to a question.

 

The central bank governor also said that, to make Britain’s departure from the European Union in March 2019 as smooth as possible, British regulators intended to give financial institutions “the benefit of the doubt, beyond the last minute”.

 

Sterling’s movements were largely driven by financial speculation over Brexit, and he said British and European officials were working hard to secure a transitional deal before the end of March.

 

“Everyone is very focused on that. It obviously won’t be a hard, legally binding agreement. But I can tell you that if 28 leaders agree to something that has legal text associated with it, which will be part of the separation agreement, that should be good enough,” he said.

 

Carney made the comments in a question and answer session after giving a speech on leadership, in which he stressed the importance of humility and empathy and said financiers should not be motivated purely by profit.

 

Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Catherine Evans and John Stonestreet

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-20

[Topdoc]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

“It has pretty much failed thus far on ... the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value...

Meanwhile since 1999, the mighty dollar has fallen in value from about 123 mg of gold to less than 23 mg today, a drop of more than 80%.

[alant]

Probably the best recommendation for Bitcoin ever.

[kamahele]

15 hours ago, Topdoc said:

Meanwhile since 1999, the mighty dollar has fallen in value from about 123 mg of gold to less than 23 mg today, a drop of more than 80%.

That might have more to do with the price of gold than the value of the dollar.

[phycokiller]

""It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange"

do your own research folks, because he obviously didnt do any

[sanemax]

3 minutes ago, phycokiller said:

""It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange"

do your own research folks, because he obviously didnt do any

I do think that he meant that no body uses it to buy anything with .

(Yes, I know that some people have , but its very rare for anyone to buy anything with a B/C)

[phycokiller]

4 hours ago, sanemax said:

I do think that he meant that no body uses it to buy anything with .

(Yes, I know that some people have , but its very rare for anyone to buy anything with a B/C)

its become one of the most popular ways to buy and sell fiat, simply because its so convenient to use. I know thats considered speculation, but theres also a lot of drugs bought with it, and other stuff. theres about 250000 transactions a day and its not all people shifting it around their own wallets

[Guitar God]

When he said " Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange" he must have been referring to me. 

 

I've ordered over $20k usd in products from China in the past 3 months and paid for all of it with either BTC, BTH or LTC. 

 

They either only accepted cryptocurrency or the only other option was wire transfer that took a week and cost a lot more in fees than crypto transfers. 

 

Carney is awfully ignorant for being in the financial industry.