Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a new task force to “manage risks” and utilize “potential benefits” of the technologies on March 23. City Minister and Secretary of Treasure John Glen presses their agnostic stance on the subject, and welcomes possibility of “flourishing” Crypto Exchange.
The UK government’s early findings have supported that Cryptocurrencies do not pose a substantial threat to the UK economy. The new group is focused on plausibility of an exchange and regulation of ICOs.
Industry growth has been developing under the nearby governments of Gibraltar and Switzerland.
What’s next?
Start-ups like the London Block Exchange could see rapid expansion as regulations fall into place in the UK. This project developed a debit card called a “Dragoncard,” that bridges the gab between cryptocurrencies and the current most common method of payment by instantly converting crypto value to fiat.
Surprise: Gibraltar based card provider Wavecrest is the issuer for the Visa card.
There are several other companies attempting to make this transition form cryptocurrencies to a standard Visa or Master card such as Monaco, and TenX.
Does this really bridge the gap?
Cryptocurrencies were developed to remove the middle man right? Peer-to-Peer, Peer-to-Business, and so on, direct transactions are the goal.
It seems counter productive to be in competition to cram cryptocurrencies into the old system. However, the biggest factor in this early stage of development is awareness and proper knowledge. Cryptocurrencies have been plagued associations to crime and anti-government sentiment.
In order to spread knowledge of the potential for bringing what Blockchain technology has to offer, the public must first be receptive to learning it.
There are a number of payment processors trying to reach online merchants, such as Globee, where there is no exchange to fiat. This type of organization can stand as another option to major companies like Paypal.
