Stephen Harper, who served as Canada's prime minister for 9 years, says there may be a place for Bitcoin and central bank digital currencies as part of a basket of reserve currencies to replace Dollar.
In an interview with Jay Martin of Cambridge House Investment Service at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference on Sunday, Harper said that the possibility of exchanging the US dollar can only come from a currency. As large as the Euro or Chinese Yuan.
and expressed doubts that either would be a viable alternative currency given the long-term uncertainty over the value of the euro and the arbitrary measures that the Chinese government would take regarding the value of Yuan.
where Harper said: It is difficult to see an alternative to the US dollar as the main reserve currency in the world. Other than gold, Bitcoin and a whole basket of things [...] I think we'll see the number of things people use as reserves expand, but the US dollar will still be the bulk of it.
The former prime minister added that he believed that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) were to some extent inevitable but likely subject to monetary policy around the world.
Harper added that he was concerned that central banks would become a kind of public bank instead of a mere financial controller, something that could affect the introduction of any central bank digital currency.
Harper said: In the end, if you have a digital currency and the purpose of the central bank is to control inflation and create a stable currency and pricing, then the digital currency is just an evolution of the market. . But if it is part of a series of what I think are wild experiments regarding the role of central banking, it will worry me a lot.
Harper served as Prime Minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. The adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the country has expanded dramatically since his departure, with Canada having the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in September. According to Timothy Lynn, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, the bank is also moving in the development of a central bank digital currency.
