Following a policy meeting that recently took place, Bank of Japan Governer Haruhiko Kuroda sounded off on bitcoin is response to reporter questions on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, bitcoin simply “cannot be a currency” until it has proven itself to be a reliable in all facets.
“It is not a currency, and I don’t think it is a general means of settlement,” he said, according to The Economic Times. “Without safety or stability in its value, there would be no demand. In that sense, it cannot be a currency.”
The Governor’s comments come in the wake of a series of issues related to bitcoin enterprises, who have time and time again let down their customers. The biggest and closest to home is Mt. Gox. Based in Tokyo, the exchange collapsed earlier this year, losing hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to investors.
Most recently, a Cyprus start-up dubbed Neo & Bee has apparently collapsed as well, running low on capital to keep the business running. The company’s CEO reported discontinued communications and left the country. He broke his silence last week when he said he left Cyprus to find investors, and he’s remained outside of the country due to alleged threats against his family.
It doesn’t end there. There’s a slew of other tales along the same lines (of which I do not have time to recap), so it’s understandable that Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda would take this stance.
The fact of the matter is that bitcoin does need to prove itself. All it needs is time.
FreeJack 
Rogier 
Fill in the blank 
hasan 
toufiq 
NO WAY…a central banker claiming Bitcoin cannot be a currency? Who could imagine such a thing!
It’s like asking the postal service in 1995 if they consider email a good replacement for snail mail 🙂
Bank of _______ : Bitcoin is not a currency as there is no mechanism by which we can artificially inflate it, thus, not a currency as we understand the term.
Yep, from a banker’s point of view, something can only be considered “currency” if they have the exclusive control (i.e. monopoly) on its creation, storage, and transactions.
Gold has been a fine currency for thousands of years. The exact same principles that made gold a very suitable form of money (and, in fact, a currency) also hold for Bitcoin. Except Bitcoin is adapted to the 21st century: it’s digital, online, direct, worldwide, dividable, and we can even encrypt and backup our money. In a way you can consider Bitcoin to be “Gold 2.0”.
Bitcoin makes banks absolete – at least for their role as issuer of money and provider of transactions. However, a whole new market and playing field will arise, and the first bank that actually adopts Bitcoin and starts offering Bitcoin-related products and services will make a truckload of money.
I’m curious to see which country, government or bank will jump aboard the Bitcoin train first. They are most definitely gonna benefit bigtime.
Interesting, but Bitcoin is just the tip of the iceberg in the
crypto-currency world. You should do a piece on an alternative coin,
like Zetacoin. They are about to become one of the major mobile payment
solutions around Africa, lead developers are in meetings right now to
make it happen. You can get Zetacoin on most major coin exchanges
Bter/Cryptsy/Mintpal. As of today Zetacoin are 1,000 times cheaper than
Bitcoin. They will be all over the news in the next few weeks! Do a
research piece on Zetacoin for people who don’t know what alternative
coins are, or want to get on the bandwagon before they get to $100 per
coin. Right now they’re only about $0.01 each
Interesting, but Bitcoin is just the tip of the iceberg in the
crypto-currency world. You should do a piece on an alternative coin,
like Zetacoin. They are about to become one of the major mobile payment
solutions around Africa, lead developers are in meetings right now to
make it happen. You can get Zetacoin on most major coin exchanges
Bter/Cryptsy/Mintpal. As of today Zetacoin are 1,000 times cheaper than
Bitcoin. They will be all over the news in the next few weeks! Do a
research piece on Zetacoin for people who don’t know what alternative
coins are, or want to get on the bandwagon before they get to $100 per
coin. Right now they’re only about $0.01 each