Crypto Currency and Australia’s Future

If you missed the Australian Financial Review article on us yesterday here is a link.  You can also find it in today’s print version.

Not only is the Australian government recognising crypto currencies such as bitcoin as currencies for the purposes of GST there is also a bipartisan push to extend that to the Reserve Bank embracing crypto as an official form of currency to bolster our $145b financial services industry.

Lead by Labour senator Sam Dastyari and Liberal Senator Jane Hume, and forming the Parliamentary Friends of Blockchain at Parliament House, the basis of the proposition is that Australia needs to keep up with the global adoption of crypto currency as an official currency or lose competitiveness in this quickly evolving space.

Whilst most think mining is our biggest contributor, financial services has become the biggest industry in this country over the last decade, overtaking manufacturing in 2007, which has been on the decline since.

As Senator Dastyari says:  "We can't compete with our Asian neighbours when it comes to producing cheap goods and services anymore. We can compete when it comes to financial services but that is going to mean big, bold decisions."

Adoption of crypto currency, a peer to peer system, removes settlement risk, times and foreign currency exchanges.  The underlying smart contract abilities also allows contract conditions for payment to be ‘in built’, thereby eliminating counterparty risk as well.  

Famously IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said: “What the internet did for communications, I think Blockchain will do for trusted transactions.”