U.K. Government Keeping An Open Mind On Bitcoin, Says Digital Economy Minister

Ed Vaizey, the U. K.’s minister for the Digital Economy, has said the government is keeping an open mind about digital currencies as it continues a review of Bitcoin and its ilk which kicked off this summer.
The minister was speaking during a wide-ranging on-stage interview with TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher, taking place yesterday at Disrupt Europe.
The U. K. government announced a review of unregulated digital currencies back in August, at the same time as launching a new financial trade body for the fintech sector, called Innovate Finance.
Asked whether the Bitcoin review will result in legislation or policies to actively encourage cryptocurrency technology companies, Vaizey said the government is still looking at the tech, but sees potential for e-payments to bring multiple benefits to consumers and businesses.
An uncertain and globally uneven regulatory environment around digital currencies injects an additional risk factor into this category of startups.
‘We’re doing a major program of work looking at opportunities in digital currencies,’ he said. ‘I think the Chancellor again, when he launched this new trade body, had a good look at that.

This post was published at Tech Crunch on october 22, 2014.