Chinese Economists Fail to Agree on Future of Blockchain and Virtual Currencies

Chinese Economists Fail to Agree on Future of Blockchain and Virtual Currencies

The survey embraced about a hundred chief economists from China

On February 1, 2019, Chinese media outlet Jiemian informed that the country’s economists were unable to agree on the future of digital currency and blockchain, according to a survey from internet-based technology enterprise Tencent.

The survey was carried out by Tencent’s Financial Science and Technology Think Tank. About a hundred chief economists from banks, universities and research institutions participated in a quiz. Participants of the survey were asked about monetary policy of the Chinese government for 2019, and about such issues as the yuan’s potential volatility.

The results were very heterogeneous. About half respondents – 51% – has stated they would support issuing a blockchain-based version of the yuan – a central bank digital currency – in China. 40% has said they would not support such digital currency. At the moment, the People’s Bank of China, which is China’s central bank, continues to study the possibility of issuing the government-backed virtual currency, in line with the other jurisdictions worldwide.

As for blockchain, the results broadly repeated those of other surveys carried out some time before. Economic experts have fallen into 3 groups: 33% has expressed a belief that the technology is highly important, 32% has taken more neutral position, and 19% has been unenthused about blockchain technology.

Author: Helen Darkhouse

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