Alderney, the most northerly of the Channel Islands, a part of Bailiwick of Guernsey, and a British Crown dependency decided to mint bitcoin money. The Financial Times reported it referring to the available documents.
Since summer, Alderney has been trying to make arrangements for minting bitcoin money with the Royal Mint. The island is going to be the first worldwide hub of the financial business in bitcoins. At the same time, Alderney aims to be recognized as a cluster of services corresponding to the money laundering regulations. The authorities are also planning to set up exchange offices, payment processors, and safe deposit boxes for bitcoins.
The coins might contain gold. They are expected to be emitted by the Royal Mint as commemorative coins. Holders of such coins will not be able to settle a payment in cash during shopping, but it will be possible to exchange them into e-money. Alderney’s authorities intend to allocate the proceeds from selling coins to the Royal Mint while a sales commission is supposed to go to the local government. New physical coins will be secured by bitcoin cybercurrency which is supposed to be deposited on a digital account in Alderney. Previously, private companies have already minted bitcoins, but no government-owned mint has done this so far.
David Janczewski, a top manager of the mint, affirmed that Alderney’s Finance Minister had requested to consider the possibility to emit commemorative coins or so-called bitcoins. However, David Janczewski specifies that the talks have not advanced too far yet, thus the bitcoin mintage still remains just an intention.
Nowadays, bitcoins are the most popular cryptocurrency. One of its distinctive features is decentralization as emission and circulation is not subject to any regulator.
Interestingly, the cryptocurrency is not backed by any physical commodity; nevertheless, its rate is steadily rising. Before 2013, the cybercurrency’s rate was no more than $13; then the rate rocketed abruptly. On November 29, the rate hit a local record of $1242. However, on December 2, the rate plummeted by one third – the bitcoin’s value sank to $840. The disclosure of keys to online wallets could account for such a crash. The keys eventually appeared to be fake.