Bank of Romania: Digital Coins Cannot Replace Real Money Yet But Blockchain is Worth Exploring

These days, banks of central European and Asian countries are considering over cryptocurrencies, suggesting various approaches. Overall European regulators feel more or less optimistic regarding this area.

All the more surprising comes the opinion of the National Bank of Romania (NBR).

NBR speaks out

The NBR governor, Mugur Isarescu, has publicly spoken against digital assets, claiming that in his view they cannot be adopted as currency for one simple reason– they fail to perform functions of regular fiat money.

Besides, Isarescu is certain that virtual coins are not issued by any trusted institution, they are often created by anonymous personalities and can bring up security issues and worries.

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He also emphasized that there are very few places where one may spend Bitcoin and that the number of BTC transactions is not large enough. The governor believes that payments with crypto take longer than the existing payment services and mechanisms.

Blockchain but not crypto

Seeming to follow the line of China and Russia, the NBR chief said that the Blockchain technology that powers digital coins is well worth studying and adopting.

However, the governor did mention that overall the Bank of Romania is not against cryptocurrencies but they require more changes and development before their integration into the economy can be realistic.

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Possible prospects

Since the head of NBR admitted that Blockchain has deep potential, then, who knows, maybe the bank will decide to create its own cryptocurrency, fiat-backed one, to use on the territory of the country.

Perhaps the example of President Maduro and Venezuela will serve as inspiration for them. Except for the fact that the Petro is banned in the US and is actively opposed by President Trump.