‘Early days’ for a look at island’s own cryptocurrency
A GUERNSEY cryptocurrency is being investigated by a deputy.
Deputy Mark Helyar said the idea had been raised with him, and that he was looking at the issue, but stressed it was still early days and not everyone thought it was a good idea.
‘I’m in the process of educating myself about it,’ he said. ‘I have been involved with some commercial transactions that involve the use of blockchain, effectively as a secure register for transactions.
‘But the idea of a local cryptocurrency has been raised with me by some individuals.
‘I’m looking at ways in which we might be able to do something like that both as an initiative to progress but also that we might be able to use it effectively as a currency of our own, rather than one which is tied to sterling.
‘It’s very early days at the moment. So, there are people that strongly disagree that it’s a good idea.
‘But I am investigating it and talking to people that have more knowledge in that area than I do.’
It was a personal initiative, said the deputy, who is Treasury lead on Policy & Resources.
‘But if it appears that there is a strong indicator that this is something which might be beneficial to the island, then I would certainly want to bring it to the table and discuss it.’
Deputy Helyar said a version of such a currency was the Bristol Pound, which was issued in the city to be used for local transactions. But it ceased to exist last year.
‘That’s the low end of the scale and the top end of the scale is a full-on internationally tradeable asset-backed currency that we could use effectively for quantitative easing.
‘One of the issues we have is that the UK is printing money. They are as a result, because we are directly linked to sterling, reducing the power of our spending money.’
Guernsey did not benefit directly from the UK printing cash, he continued, although measures taken by the UK to support its economy did benefit the island.
Deputy Helyar said Guernsey had only a limited number of fiscal levers that could be operated in terms of raising funds and did not have monetary instruments. ‘It’s an academic interest to start with, but we shall have to see if it goes anywhere.’
