As part of the G7 meeting in France last week, a series of announcements were made.
The G7 represents the seven largest advanced economies in the world. Finance ministers from these countries descended upon Chantilly, France to discuss a multitude of issues. One of these topics was of stablecoins – relevant due to the fact that Facebook is attempting to create a non-sovereign reserve currency.
The G7 has a “working group” discussing the issue of blockchain-based stablecoins. This group stated these technologies have the “potential to address these shortcomings and deliver greater benefits to users.”
But while there may be benefits, there is sufficient reason to push pause:
“… stablecoins are largely untested in a real-world environment and on the scale required to run a global payment system. Moreover, they give rise to a number of serious risks related to public policy priorities including, in particular, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, as well as consumer and data protection, cyber resilience, fair competition and tax compliance.”
The G7 Stablecoin working group identified four “key considerations,” including:
