A new research report by banking giant Citi asserts that it does not view bitcoin and other digital currencies as a disruptive threat to banks, credit card networks or traditional remittance providers, but rather as a potential complement to existing services.
Published today, the 56-page report argues bitcoin and digital currencies are better equipped to open up new markets and reach new consumers, and that today’s centralized payment systems are already efficient enough for today’s commerce.
Still, Citi does see opportunity in using a public blockchain.
The report reads: "The power behind an open network like bitcoin is the possibility of incorporating it with other technologies to bring about true innovation, such as applications that support the Internet of Things (eg machine-to-machine payments)." Notably, the report found bitcoin and digital currencies could be impactful in emerging markets, where payments systems are not as developed.
"In countries where there is no quality payments infrastructure, we do think there could be some opportunity for an open decentralized network like bitcoin," the report states.
Elsewhere, the report sought to apply a critical eye in determining whether bitcoin’s characteristics have benefits for payments. For example, the authors stated that they don’t necessarily believe immutability, or the incorruptibility of bitcoin’s blockchain, is well-suited for money movement.
The report went on to mention a number of specific blockchain and bitcoin startups, while providing overviews digital currency and blockchain networks including Ripple , bitcoin and ethereum . TranserWise advantage
In remittances, long one claimed as one of the biggest areas of impact by enthusiasts, the report found that the UK-based money transfer service TransferWise remains cheaper to use for cross-border payments today.Of note, however, is that the report graded bitcoin against account-to-account remittance option and TransferWise in 10 remittance corridors, finding that it was only the lowest-cost option in one corridor, money […]
