South Korea’s central bank reveals it won’t issue digital currency

South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea (BOK), has confirmed that it will not be issuing a digital currency in the near future, according to local news outlet the Korea Herald.

The report states that there is “no urgent need” for the BOK to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC), despite the likes of Sweden and Tunisia considering implementing their own.

“We have no plans to issue any type of CBDC that is available for all people in the near future. We have to work further on benefits and costs of CBDC implementation first,” an unnamed BOK official said, as quoted in the Korea Herald.

However, the BOK now have plans to conduct further and more detailed studies into the impact of central bank digital currency issuance.

Staunch Bitcoin naysayer Nouriel Roubini has often remarked about how CBDCs will “destroy Bitcoin.”

“Most of these FinTech innovations are still connected to traditional banks, and none of them rely on cryptocurrencies or blockchain. Likewise, if central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are ever issued, they will have nothing to do with these over-hyped blockchain technologies,” he said in an article for the Guardian.

He added: “Nonetheless, starry eyed crypto-fanatics have seized on policymakers’ consideration of CBDCs as proof that even central banks need blockchain or crypto to enter the digital-currency game. This is nonsense. If anything, CBDCs would likely replace all private digital payment systems, regardless of whether they are connected to traditional bank accounts or cryptocurrencies.”