Digital currency is coming to Australia and will be issued by its central bank and also be used to gain control of regulation in the crypto market, which will change how consumers and businesses pay for goods and services.
Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s Treasurer said there was a real need for reform in their current framework and apparently wants to prevent Silicon Valley from having control over how Australia determines future payment systems.
The Diem project, which belongs to Meta Platforms Inc. is building a network for global payments which will service its own stablecoin, by pegging their value to the U.S. dollar or central bank digital currencies.
The Australian government, according to Frydenberg, will look to implement a digital version of paper money, that will be universally accessible. This will include consumers being able to use crypto currency, but in a regulated framework.
“These are significant shifts which we need to be in front of,” Frydenberg said.
New payment technologies, pioneered by tech giants including China’s Ant Group Co., are something the Australian Reserve Bank will have to come to terms with as Australians using digital assets for transactions is increasing.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, in 2018 over 800,000 people were using crypto, that number is far greater today with crypto currency being a quick way to make money.
Cryptocurrencies, which are different from digital currency that are issued by central banks, pose a threat to regimes who want to control the world’s money, especially because it can be traded across borders more easily.
Australian managing director of Kraken, Jonathan Miller, who specializes in crypto-exchange, said Australia “needs to nurture the industry as a hub of innovation,” but warned that regulations should not “go overboard.”
“What we’ve seen in other markets, where there’s too heavy a hand, is a rejection of the market,” he said.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), one of the most powerful banks in the world and owned in part by the Rockefellers, wants to create an efficient platform for global payments, using central bank digital currencies and Australia has joined in on their experiment.
The United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada have had similar developments. The experiment on Australia comes after three separate reviews into the nation’s payment systems.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has stated that they are opposed to the retail version of digital currency that has been proposed by the government. When asked if they would be launching their own wholesale currency, they remained silent but stressed that they would do more research.
The future of the crypto industry in the United States, will be discussed when cryptocurrency leaders testify before the House Financial Services Committee, who are also set to tackle the regulations that may be needed for stablecoins.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, said stablecoin has the “potential to support beneficial payments options.” she stressed, however, that there is the need for regulation.
“Current oversight is inconsistent and fragmented, with some stablecoins effectively falling outside the regulatory perimeter,” she said.
