Digital Currency/Stablecoin/Tokenization Series: IMF Reckons Crypto-Stable Coins Likely Bring Paradigm Shift in Banking

The global financial organization, International Monetary Fund (IMF) is striving to look after monetary cooperation, safeguard financial solidity, provide aid for the international trade, and sustainable economic growth across the world. The organization has recently published a paper that unveils a framework of providing insight on the blend of the technology and the global economy.

As per the publication, 'The Rise of Digital Money,' scripted by Tobias Adrian and Tommaso Mancini Griffoli, and intends to scrutinize the trials that electronic forms of money pose to legacy financial institutions and regulators.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde stated in a recent interview with CNBC, digital assets are “shaking the system”, during his explanation, the financial system including some commercial banks have already begun to change their business models in response to the mounting interests of fintech and cryptocurrency space. 

As a result, it has prompted a shift in the attitudes of big banks and AMCs, who are attempting to strike a chord in the emerging segment. The recent instance including big players like JP Morgan, Fidelity are coming up with stable coin and custodian services to be piloted exclusively with the institutional clients, and gradually scaled towards retail use.

Well, in order to get rid of the shortcomings of crypto-space, the Swedish Riksbank and the IMF are trialing their own cryptocurrencies to explore the use of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). 

The government authorities and corporate currencies can be centralized and monitored with the consent of private blockchains which is contrary to that of decentralized cryptocurrencies and ‘corporate cryptos’ would be obligated to share transaction data with government agencies to operate in an official capacity.

In such an ecosystem, a future of the digital economy is foreseen with some distinctive features: such as, Official Central Bank Digital Currency (authenticated, sole legal tender), Corporate currency, for instance: JP Morgan USD pegged stablecoins, Facebook coin (authenticated but not deemed as legal tender), Digital commodity money e.g. Bitcoin, Litecoin and commodity-backed (permissionless, unofficial but mostly legitimate), Digital cash e.g. Zcash and Monero (unauthenticated).

The St.Louis branch of the Federal Reserve published a study on bitcoin's future price path, who do often play a role as a leader at communicating cutting-edge economic research and communicating it in a simplified way or reducing complexities of economic movements. 

Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde made her notions about the benefits of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) back in last November, wherein she stated that cryptocurrency being a contender for a cashless society, could improve security, accentuate financial functions, and afford greater privacy. Courtesy: BNC