Japanese Deputy Governor Doesn’t See Need for Government-Issued Cryptocurrency

With the rise of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, many countries around the world have looked into developing a digital asset of their own, generally to be issued by a central bank.

However, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, Masayoshi Amamiya, believes there’s no need for his country of residence to develop one of their own. At least, for now.

Speaking at the Future of Payments Forum, Amamiya notes that there are essentially two types of money:

“There are two forms of money: token-based or account-based. Token-based money is a form of money in which monetary value is locally stored in some kind of media. Cash and electronic money issued by Japanese transport companies are examples.”

He continues, stating that “future payment services will likely develop based on either of these two forms: token-based money or account-based money.” However, this has not been decided as of yet.

Part of this reasoning is that Amamiya wants to ensure that the role of the central bank stays the same.

He claims that even if central banks will struggle at times, they’ve been through tough times before.

Some things will change in the country, however.

For example, Amamiya claims that cashless payments will continue to expand within the country. That, and more payment providers will continue to appear.