Tim Lane, deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, said during the FinTech RDV 2020 conference held in Montreal that although the country's central bank does not plan to release its own digital currency in the near future, it does not rule out this possibility due to the possible mass adoption of digital currencies.
According to him, there is currently "not a compelling case" to support the launch of a CBDC, however, the country's central bank is working on the development of a prototype in case it eventually needs to launch it.
He has said:
"The Bank of Canada would design it to provide the benefits of cash—safe, easy to access, private and a good store of value—but in a digital version that consumers could use to buy things electronically online or in person at a shop."
At the same time, Lane believes private cryptos could be a potential threat to the Canadian dollar, since "If one or more alternative digital currencies threatened to become used widely as an alternative to the Canadian dollar, then a central bank issued digital currency could be used to defend monetary sovereignty."
In this sense, a CBDC would serve the country's central bank as a weapon to defend the national currency.
The BIS (Bank for International Settlements) has recently said that more central banks are considering the possibility of launching their own digital currencies in the near future. China seems to be the most advanced, although as it has recently reported, the pilot tests of its digital yuan have been delayed due to the coronavirus.
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