Industry Initiatives Indicate Growing Interest In Cryptocurrency Payments

Late last week, Reuters reported that "[s]everal of the world's largest banks are in the process of investing around $50 million" to create "... a digital cash equivalent of central bank-backed currencies like the dollar or euro that would run on blockchain-based technology." The institutional cryptocurrency would be "convertible at parity and backed by cash assets held at a central bank." According to other reports this week, one of the world's largest social media companies has formed Libra Networks, a Swiss-based financial technology company. The company is reportedly planning to begin testing its own cryptocurrency aimed at making it easier for people without a bank account to send and receive money.