The EU Parliament has published a new report, “Virtual currencies and central banks monetary policy: challenges ahead”, which dismisses claims from the likes of economist Robert Shiller, who has declared the death of Bitcoin on numerous occasions.
SAFE, TRANSPARENT, AND FASTThe report went so far as to say that “their global transaction networks are relatively safe, transparent, and fast” and that “this gives them good prospects for further development.” However, the report disagrees with those that see Bitcoin as replacing global currencies, instead saying that they “remain unlikely to challenge the dominant position of sovereign currencies and central banks, especially those in major currency areas.”
ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS?In particular, the report has seemingly hit out at market bears and critics that claim crypto is only used for black market and illegal trades. This is a sentiment that is used by critics of the currency to state why it holds no real value. In fact, one Australian group of academics used detection controlled estimation and network clustering and found that 44% of all Bitcoin transactions involve illegal activity.
Conversely, there is a lot of research that claims this notion to be nonsense. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies conducted their own research and reported that less than 1% of Bitcoin is used for money laundering, which is representative of the global economy as a whole.
CHANGING OPINIONOf course, the anonymity of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is such that it is impossible to accurately determine how much of it is used for illegal activities, but a lot of governments, regulatory bodies, and analysts are making u-turns on their opinion.
China, for example, was the first government to issue a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies but has recently started publishing its own ranking of the top cryptocurrencies. South Korea has stated its intent to implement a completely cashless society, utilizing cryptocurrencies as well as more traditional currency transfer systems. At the very least, this report by an official EU body shows that regulators are willing to consider the legitimacy and the case-use benefits of cryptocurrencies. They will have to, considering millennials will lead the charge in terms of cryptocurrency adoption.
https://cryptoiscoming.com/eu-parliament-gives-cryptocurrency-their-support/