The Bank of Canada, the country's central bank, is considering the possibility of issuing its own digital currency, the Financial Post reports.
The newspaper has reportedly had access to an internal presentation of the bank prepared for Stephen Poloz, the institution's governor, and the bank’s board of directors, which discusses the possibility of launching a 2-year research project to explore the possibility of issuing its own digital currency.
According to this presentation, a digital currency issued by the central bank would offer "all the benefits" of assets backed by the central bank as well as "the convenience and security of electronic payments."
The central bank wants to be in the front line of technological advances, since "cryptocurrencies may become a direct threat to our ability to implement monetary policy and lender of last resort (LOLR)."
In addition, the bank believes the use of its own digital currency may offer a wide range of advantages over traditional money, such as the possibility of gathering information about the participants in a transaction, data that could be shared with the police or tax authorities if required.
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