British Island Territory Bermuda Plans for A Cryptocurrency Framework

Almost every major government body across the globe is considering new set of rules to accommodate crypto-related operations without compromising on the local regulatory laws.

The British Island Territory of Bermuda is now looking to establish a new framework for digital currencies, During the World Economic Forum 2020 event at Davos in last week of January, CoinDesk’s Michael Casey met with Bermuda’s chief FinTech advisor Denis Pitcher on the steps taken by his government to accommodate blockchain and crypto projects at their end.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Pitcher said: “In the summer of 2018, we launched a comprehensive regulatory framework to provide clarity and leverage. We introduced a principle-based framework that allowed us to define more of a scope around a business plan as opposed to specific activities. That allows you to have the flexibility to focus on managing risks of what's new in this space.”

Pitcher added that he plans to create a crypto-based payments systems which allows the locals to spend government sanctioned digital currency anywhere in the country. He notes that by doing so, they will also be able to bridge the gap with other overseas economies.

“By allowing the government to accept it, it provides an opportunity for merchants to start saying, ‘Well, I can look at accepting digital dollars,’” he said. “So taxi operators, tourism operators, commercial businesses have a place to actually spend, which means that you're not going to have to fall back to the traditional financial system.”

Pitcher hopes that these measures will ultimately bring Bermudians closer to the global financial ecosystem. He added:

“Our history allows us to really understand financial services. But the challenge that comes from this is that when it comes to access to financial services, Bermudians are largely excluded. We don't have access to PayPal, Revolut or Square and in order to actually get access to the Apple App Store we buy credit or gift cards. We’re too small. Nobody cares about 60,000 people.”

With its digital currency plans, Pitcher hopes that Bermuda will be able to position itself as a better contributor to global economy.