Bitcoin Daily: Chinese Leaders Back Regional Digital Currency Plan

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) unveiled the debut of its Digital Monetary Institute, Cointelegraph reported. The think tank’s founding members encompass financiers, policymakers, regulators and technologists in addition to select firms such as Cypherium.

The OMFIF seeks to create connections between the traditional banking and cryptocurrency spaces. The group, which has been releasing detailed central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and cryptocurrency reports as of 2018, is geared toward CBDCs and retail and wholesale payments.

OMFIF Head of Fintech Research Bhavin Patel said per the report, “We believe there will be more central bank digital currency projects in the next few years, both on the wholesale and retail sides of the market and in many jurisdictions including the euro area.”

The Digital Monetary Institute, like its OMFIF parent group, intends to have forums and gatherings, where those in the private and public sectors can talk about pertinent matters.

In other news, leading political advisers in China have suggested a regional cryptocurrency, Coindesk reported. The digital currency would be backed by the yuan, the Korean won, the Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar.

The potential stablecoin would assist in enabling trade between the four nations by bolstering clearing services as well as cross-border settlement, while its collection of collateral would adhere to the International Monetary Foundation (IMF) special drawing rights (SDR) model.

Through that plan, the currency of every nation receives a varied weight depending on its economy. As a result, the plan looks like Libra’s initial vision prior to the time that the initiative diminished its plans and moved to create digital takes on separate fiat currencies.

Sequoia China Founding and Managing Partner Neil Shen, who is also a member of the upper house of China, put forward the idea to lawmakers in China amid the nation’s biggest annual political gathering known as the Two Sessions. Additionally, nine advisors who are upper house members reportedly inked the proposal as co-signers.