Deloitte: Bitcoin isn’t ready to be regulated yet
Deloitte has said bitcoin doesn’t need to be regulated yet, comparing the digital currency to technologies like the telephone and the internet, which were both given decades to mature before regulation.
In its report, “Bitcoin at the crossroads”, the professional services firm said despite the financial industry’s excitement over bitcoin and blockchain, the underlying technology supporting it, it’s too soon to begin regulating:
The open-source platform that is bitcoin was first released in 2009. We are a mere six years into the development of bitcoin and a long way away from the time it has typically taken for new technologies to achieve mass adoption in the past.
Deloitte said the “critical question” of how bitcoin will eventually be regulated is slowing the pace of innovation, and pointed out market penetration is still very small.
Read more: London takes the lead in bitcoin innovation
The report calls the value currently at risk with bitcoin a “drop in the water” of the ocean that is the financial industry:
Bitcoin is receiving a remarkable amount of attention and scrutiny from policy makers and regulators all around the world – far beyond what its current scale and market impact would seem to justify.
The total value of bitcoins in use around the world currently comes in at less than $4bn, compared to close to $1.36trn in US currency.