Crypto tech powers payments but crypto assets disappointing

Even while acknowledging the improvements that crypto technology has brought to finance, the IMF is still cold on crypto in general.

What crypto has provided for finance

In an IMF blog post published today, it was admitted that the technology behind crypto can be used for the improvement of cross-border payments, and it also acknowledged the (crypto inspired) innovation that the private sector was using to disrupt financial services.

However, as is the case whenever the IMF writes its blogs about crypto, the main tone was very uncomplimentary to crypto in general, and it was stated that the IMF and the Financial Stability Board were calling for “tighter regulation”.

The technologies that crypto had brought to finance were said by the IMF to be tokenization, encryption, and smart contracts. It was stated that the “private sector” (and in the view of the IMF this didn’t include crypto) was using these technologies to innovate in transformative ways.

CBDCs

Once this was said, the blog moved on to the role played by central banks. Here the drum was banged loudly on how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) would provide a means of payment, store of value, safety, liquidity, interoperability and efficiency.

The last part of the IMF blog post was used to highlight how everything that central banks were putting into place would lead to cross border payments that would imply simultaneous exchange, minimal risk, and an efficient way of transacting.

Crypto just an attempt to take out intermediaries

And finally, intent on getting one last parting shot in at cryptocurrencies, the blog authors stated their belief that crypto only came about as an attempt to “circumvent intermediaries and public oversight”.

Their view is that the only good thing to have come from crypto was that the technology could be used by the private sector to upgrade payments and financial structure “for the public good”.

Opinion

Many crypto adherents would argue that yes, crypto has certainly been an attempt to circumvent intermediaries, given that they are sucking value out of each transaction by charging fees to the user who is transacting.

Also, the IMF will never mention that CBDCs are just an updated way of carrying on with the same unfair and failing system that is crushing the wealth of citizens. 

Fiat currencies will all go to zero eventually. In a debt-based system this cannot be argued against. The average person will be the one that has to shoulder all the debt and will have to suffer the consequences of the eventual crash.

Crypto is by no means perfect. It still needs to get its house in order and fair and supportive regulation would help to enable this. However, all the thousands upon thousands of the best builders and entrepreneurs of the world will eventually provide a monetary solution, creating a tide of global adoption that all the central bankers will not be able to stem.