On February 12th, 2018, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) will be responding to questions related to the cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology in a series of videos. Mario Draghi will be answering to the chosen questions, such as whether bitcoin is a sustainable alternative to the traditional currencies. He will also comment the opinion of the ECB regarding the blockchain technology. Young citizens of the European Union, from 16 to 35 years of age, can also ask questions related to the three main topics: the possibility for a new global economic crisis, the cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology, and the economic recovery of Europe and youth unemployment.
This video session of the European Central Bank is part of the third Youth dialogue. This dialogue includes a series of discussions between the creators of the banking policies on one side and students and young people from different countries and different professions on the other side.
As an introduction to the session, the European Central Bank organized a Twitter poll where they asked if bitcoin could offer a sustainable alternative to the traditional currencies. More than 15 thousand people participated in the poll in 24 hours.
While the role of the central banks in the world of digital currencies is always a subject of discussion, the is these banks exist and their economic policies should have stability.
The volatility of bitcoin earned it many criticism because “it is a mean to conduct frauds”, according to Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest investment banks in the world. The Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, Pierre Gramegna, also suggested that the European Union could introduce new regulations related to the cryptocurrencies in the near future.
It is clear that last year was crucial for bitcoin. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency gained extreme popularity on a global scale, because of its sharp growth, while the cryptocurrency ecosystem got more mainstream media attention around the world.
The use of cryptocurrency as an everyday method of payment in the European economies is still minimal, but the adoption seems to be going nicely.
The Q&A video session of the European Central Bank is not expected to bring something new we did not know, but it should be interesting to follow and see the outcome, especially if we know that many new information regarding the cryptocurrency world are out there, available to people to interpret and understand it as they please.
This session is coming after the recent suspension of the Visa debit cards related to bitcoin in Europe and the suggestions to create cryptocurrency regulations in the European Union. The affected payment processors are allegedly in the middle of negotiations with alternative card issuers in Europe and we will see what these discussions could mean for them. Also, it should also say something to the people or companies that are willing to establish a crypto/fiat bank that would be independent from the traditional banking system.
