Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] Are Inevitable Believes Stephen Harper, Former Canadian PM

During a recent interview, former prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper said that he believes Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] are inevitable and he sees Bitcoin as an alternative reserve currency to the US Dollar. Harper’s comment came during an interview at the 2021 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference with Jay Martin of investment firm Cambridge House.

Harper said that although Euro, Chinese Yuan, and many other national currencies are used as a reserve by many, however, their chances of replacing the US Dollar is quite slim as their price are also quite vulnerable to fluctuations. He went on to say that apart from gold, bitcoin potentially could be the net reserve currency. He said,

It’s hard to see what the alternative is to the U.S. dollar as the world’s major reserve currency. Other than gold, Bitcoin, a whole basket of things […] I think you’ll see the number of things that people use as reserves will expand, but the U.S. dollar will still be the bulk of it.

Harper Believes Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] are Inevitable

During the interview, the former primer minister was also asked to share his thoughts about the growing hype around Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC]. Harper believes CBDCs are inevitable given the rate at which the financial ecosystem is evolving and leaning more towards the Fintech side. He also noted that it would take some time before it goes mainstream as it would have to pass through rigorous regulatory and monetary policies.

Harper’s comments about the CBDCs and their growing demand are quite accurate as recently the ECB chief has said that a digital Euro is something they are looking into and planning to launch, however, it would take at least 5 years before it is available in the public domain.

China is currently leading the Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] game with it’s near launch-ready digital yuan. China started working toward its CBDC as early as 2014 and currently, they are running several concurrent pilot programs in various cities to test new use cases for the digital yuan.

The likes of Japan, South Korea are done with the preliminary stage and might launch their pilot programs within a couple of years, while many western counterparts are still in the initial stages including the likes of the UK, Germany, the US, and a few other European nations.