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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
Ducas and Wilner (2017). On the one hand, there is the use of this new technology, which in most countries, but specifically in Canada, has great weight in the economy. According to EY Fintech Adoption Index: Canadian Findings (2017), the Canadian financial sector is of great economic importance, accounting for 7% of GDP and employing almost 800,000 workers. In the words of the Bank of Canada, “Creating a digital central bank currency is a rather complicated decision. We are working to determine under what conditions it may make sense, one day, to issue a digital currency; analyzing their pros and cons” (The Road to Digital Money 2020). In mid-2016, the Bank of Canada and the Royal Bank of Canada reported that they had been conducting experiments with a legal tender digital currency called CAD-COIN, according to Chapman et al. (2017). Among the participants of the experiment are the five great banks of Canada: Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), RBC, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) and Scotiabank, according to Diariobitcoin (2016).Therefore, one reason why Canada has proposed establishing its own virtual currency can be summarized as follows: so that its financial sector does not become obsolete and to follow the global trend in the use of virtual currency.In the small Nordic country of Norway, virtual currency not backed by a central bank came to the fore and focused the attention of the banking regulator, Norges Bank. The wake-up call came when the media reported in 2013 that a young Norwegian man had bought 5000 Bitcoins (equivalent to around 150 Norwegian kroner or about USD 27), and when he consulted it again they were equivalent to USD 27,000 (Wu and Pandey 2014). This situation led the banking regulator to be alert to the possible risks of operating with decentralized virtual currency, given its volatility. Following this, Christian Holte, CEO of Norwegian tax collection, stated, “Bitcoin does not fall within the current definition of money or currency. We are investigating to see how this currency fits into our tax system” (Novoa 2020). He added, as stated by Náñez Alonso (2019), that Norway will treat Bitcoin as an asset and will apply a capital benefits tax. The benefits obtained from its use will be subjected to wealth tax and the losses will be deductible.All of the above is meant as a commentary on a warning by the Norwegian banking regulator, Norges Bank, and the dangers (Johan and Pant 2018). In January 2018 and February 2019, Norges Bank issued two work reports stating its position on CBDC. The first report points out the reasons that could push Norway to implement a virtual currency backed by the central bank: “Ensure a public and risk-free alternative to deposits in private banks, in addition to the cash” and “To function as a standalone backup solution for ordinary electronic payment systems” (Norges Bank 2018). All of these reasons, as indicated by Canada, show Norges Bank’s interest in following the global trend in the use of virtual
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