A primer on cryptocurrency, written together with colleague Carlo Cocuzzo. Download here, summary below:
Is Bitcoin real money? Will it reach FX stability? As investors are scratching their heads, we show why trust is ultimately the key component for its development.
- The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will transform the way we pay, clear and settle transactions.
- Digital Currencies (DC) may become real money in the future, but there are still some missing elements.
- Bid-ask spreads on Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges are still quite high, suggesting far-from-ideal liquidity conditions.
- The “trust problem” is still proving a bit of a headache for the Blockchain community, but we will likely see further developments on this front in the future.
- But the big elephant in the room is the absence of a central bank.