Independent Scotland Could be 'Cryptocurrency Testbed'

Guy Debelle, the assistant governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, believes Scotland could become a testbed for cryptocurrencies if it gains independence from the UK. Debelle's remarks were addressed to the audience at the Financial Times Camp Alphaville event in London, in a rather unconventional fashion for a banker: in a T-shirt, speaking through a telepresence robot.

Independent Scotland, Debelle reasoned, has a compelling reason to consider the option, as if the Scots vote for independence this September, they will be "Short a currency".

"The Scots can go back to experimenting with a multitude of currencies, bitcoin and the like, and we can just sit back and see how it goes."

At the event, Debelle also elaborated on Scotland's economic history.

He noted that Scotland has a "Bit of experience" with competing currencies dating back in the 18th. and 19th. centuries.

He recalled a brief period in Scotland's history when the country was able to issue its own currencies, independent of the Crown.

A number of panellists disagreed with Debelle's comments, although they were open to the idea of Scotland experimenting with digital currencies, The Guardian reports.

Even Debelle admitted he is not willing to forecast the demise of cash just yet.

Kevin Dowd, the author of a recently published paper on bitcoin, agrees with Debelle and believes Scotland's past banking experiment was in some ways a success.

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