Nick Davey, an official of the UK Payment System Regulator (PSR), said that the UK payment system regulator is exploring how to regulate the encryption industry.
The first is to study distributed ledger technology. While we don’t expect to see digital currencies displacing traditional currencies in the near future, it’s important that innovation and competition in the payments space be balanced with strong safeguards to ensure people are protected when they pay.
Regulators, however, have gotten a head start on policing the industry. The Treasury Department has placed under its supervision Fnality International, a payments system that uses distributed ledger technology that is still in testing.
It will be the first wholesale payments system to use central bank money and a decentralized network that operates 24/7. The company already has 17 major institutions as shareholders and will partner with some of them.