Overnight, digital currency became popular in the official world

Previously, digital currencies such as Bitcoin were regulated and rejected by many governments. Now, from the IMF to the Chinese government, authorities seem to be beginning to use digital currencies as a means of managing funds. The People's Bank of China may hope to strengthen its management of funds through digital currencies. And IMF President Lagarde pointed out that digital currencies have many benefits.

The IMF said that digital currencies, especially their technologies, are crucial to the advancement of efficiency and inclusiveness in the financial industry. However, they may also become a tool for money laundering, financing terrorist organizations and tax evasion. It is a challenge to establish a balanced regulatory system that prevents risks while not stifling innovation. This requires a lot of international cooperation.

The People's Bank of China also recently clarified its attitude towards digital currency. Yesterday, the People's Bank of China held a seminar on digital currency in Beijing.

The central bank revealed at the meeting that in fact, a special research team has been established since 2014 to conduct in-depth research on the digital currency issuance and business operation framework, key technologies of digital currency, issuance and circulation environment, legal issues faced, etc., and has achieved phased results.

It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that a clear attitude has been expressed towards digital currency since the central bank and five other ministries issued a notice on preventing Bitcoin risks on December 5, 2013.

The central bank said that issuing digital currency can reduce the high cost of issuing and circulating traditional paper currency, improve the convenience and transparency of economic transaction activities, reduce illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion, and enhance the central bank's control over money supply and circulation.

Li Lin, founder of Huobi.com, said that compared with the traditional asset management and payment system, the difference between Bitcoin and other digital currencies is that its asset issuance and trading are self-organized and decentralized, and the trust problem in the virtual economic system is solved through technology rather than central institutions. The reason why digital currency can reduce the high cost of issuing and circulating traditional paper money is that the blockchain technology behind it is the core. Not only in the field of traditional paper money issuance, but also in traditional financial fields such as crowdfunding, P2P, and securities, the blockchain technology behind digital currency will also play a huge role.

"There will be no paper money in the future," Huang Zhen, director of the Institute of Financial Law at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told a Beijing Business Daily reporter. He said that the central bank's statement yesterday sent a signal that digitalization is a trend and that all currencies will be digitalized in the future.

Bai Chengyu, Secretary General of China Microfinance Alliance, said that we are now in the era of "digital currency discovery", and digital currency is the gold of the Internet era. In fact, many companies such as UnionPay and Alibaba have also announced their research on blockchain technology. "In the future, it may be fully digitalized, such as scanning code payment developed in conjunction with third-party payment, so that cash transactions are no longer needed." Huang Zhen said.

At the same time, with the digitalization of currency, how will the currency issuance model be reformed in the future? Bai Chengyu said that in the Internet era, there should be an Internet central bank. Its important function is to issue and manage virtual currency based on Internet technology. I believe that the central bank will increase its research and efforts in this field in the future.

In addition, Huang Zhen said that the entire financial industry will also be digitized, which is a trend. Industry insiders pointed out that after banks use blockchain technology, they will not only improve service quality, but also reduce operating costs. For example, the cost of inter-bank transfers is very high now, but if blockchain technology is used, it can be achieved at low or even zero cost.

However, it is not easy to realize digital currency. Bai Chengyu said that what we are looking for now is a functional carrier that can meet the so-called value exchange needs in terms of security, convenience and other aspects. There are many technical problems to be solved. After the technical problems are solved, how to use digital currency to replace the circulation and issuance of paper money in the future requires a gradual process.

Huang Zhen said that the central bank has only issued a policy at present, and there is still a long time before the digital currency is implemented, and a pilot project may be carried out as soon as possible.