Mario Draghi, the erstwhile president of the European Central Bank (ECB) made some startling comments during his presentation today at the Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
When asked about cryptocurrency regulations or bans, similar to the political decisions the Chinese central government has enforced, Draghi made it clear that there is no way to ban Bitcoin, or to even regulate it, saying:
“It would actually not be in our powers to prohibit and regulate them. We have to ask what effects cryptocurrencies have on the economy.”
He added that they are still far too immature to be considered a viable payment methodology - a conclusion that was reached by the ECB in tandem with the Central Bank of Japan last week.
Estonia control
While the ECB has no powers over the regulatory control of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they do have control over EU member states wishing to issue their own cryptocurrency, like Estonia.
Draghi made it abundantly clear that the ECB does not recognize the ‘estcoin,’ stating that no member state can issue its own currency, even digitally. “The currency of the Eurozone is the euro,” he said succinctly.