We don’t need cryptocurrencies – former St Louis Fed economist

Current payment infrastructure and physical cash already provide benefits offered by cryptocurrencies

digital-currency

A former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis says he fails to see any benefits to using bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency, over existing payment methods.

In a blog post published on the regional Fed’s website, Stephen Williamson, now a professor at Canada’s Western University, Ontario, dissects the theory that cryptocurrencies provide consumers with an “efficient means” for carrying out transactions, compared with centralised transactions, which some deem “costly”.

“But these

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