Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology industry have reached such a level that in many regions of the world it has been acknowledged. Despite the rate of adoption, some countries have remained stubborn in their hatred of crypto.
The latest country to vilify cryptocurrencies was Brazil when the country’s Federation of Banks president bashed the industry for its lack of use cases.
Murilo Portugal, the President of the banking consortium was blunt in stating that cryptocurrencies will never serve the same purpose or use case of fiat currencies.
Portugal gave his two cents while speaking at the FHC Foundation forum. There, several officials talked about blockchain, cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence.
The debate was about the Impact of the ‘Digital Revolution on the Financial System’, which received contributions from various sectors of the financial industry.
According to the president, virtual assets did not comply with any of the three fundamental principles of fiat currencies. The three principles were: the unity of account, a reserve of value and means of exchange. He added:
“They are actually called currencies but they are not currencies, which is why it is cryptocurrency. They do not fulfill any of the classic functions of the currency, which is to serve as an account unit, where people can express prices. They do not serve as a means of payment or as a store of value because the volatility is very high.”
Mr. Portugal added that the digital revolution was a whole another dimension in terms of finance and that regulators must take a deeper dive into it.
During his speech, he did not fail to mention how cryptocurrencies were transforming the credit, payments and insurance space. He added that data and information will end up being regulated in the same way as money.
The financial honcho claimed that the younger generation of Brazil were all getting on the digital bandwagon. Only 56 percent of the population has access to the internet with 75 percent of the economically active population having a cell phone.
The former executive director of the World Bank believed that the entire world is in the midst of a very fast financial transaction.
Latin American countries, which were supposed to be a haven for cryptocurrencies also saw a dip in crypto usage.
Brazil’s neighbor Venezuela recently reported that Bitcoin was not being used as a traditional store of value. Investigations revealed that holders were converting their crypto into fiat or stablecoin as and when possible.