South Africa Central Bank Looking Into Cryptocurrency Regulation Author: Max Moeller Last Updated: 03 December 2019 As you may know, blockchain technology and Bitcoin is a technology that’s ideal for banking the unbanked, serving those who don’t even have a place to store their funds. However, this technology is struggling to make it in the mainstream because of regulatory issues, among other things. That and cryptocurrencies do allow for citizens to circumvent traditional monetary laws which, as one can imagine, doesn’t make governments too happy. While this is a big problem in the United States, one of the more developed countries fairly far behind in the blockchain space, the South African government is looking to implement some regulatory policies as well. According to The Merkle Hash, the Reserve Bank of South Africa notes that some bad actors often use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fund and move money around regarding criminal activities. Of course, this doesn’t mean the country wants to ban digital assets, but it means they want to take more of a regulatory look at them. Not only will this help with criminal activities, but the government also claims that it will help “legitimize” cryptocurrencies. There’s no need for them to ban these assets either. Rather, many countries could take a hint from South Africa not outright removing cryptocurrencies but looking into how to responsibly manage them.
