However, there are only 1.6 million addresses that have recorded balances of more than 0.001 Bitcoin (GBP 0.35).
From 9 July 2014 to 20 August 2014 CNY-Bitcoin transactions reached around 60% out of the total transactions with fiat currencies. Additionally, USD-Bitcoin transactions amounted to 32%, EUR-Bitcoin to 3% and GBP-Bitcoin to 1.2%.
According to the same report, the value of digital currencies hold to the expected real return for having digital currencies (the nominal interest rate minus expected price inflation), embedded risks associated with a respective digital currency (theft, fraud), embedded benefits of digital currencies over fiat currencies or costs emerging out of interchange fees between digital currencies and fiat counterparts.
The report draws attention upon the present low fees on Bitcoin transactions which will constantly rise in value because more computational power will concomitantly be required as more users will join the system.
More computational power is required to ensure swift transactions (10 minutes on average in the case of Bitcoin) even when more addresses are created. As such, costs associated with miners work taking care of the block-chain will surpass present incentives and, to cover the extra costs, fees will rise.
Moreover, digital currencies would threaten the present monetary system stability of world countries if they were to be adopted at large scale and reach ‘systematic status as a payment system’.
Despite the general sceptical tone of the report concerning digital currencies’ significant global influence presently and in the near future, it admits the ‘innovative’ status of the ‘distributed ledger’ technology which virtually permits the creation of a decentralized payments system whose record of payments transactions are made public and, hence, trust is generated by the network.
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