Canada studies the possibility of using digital currency to follow people's spending habits

Reportedly, the Canadian central bank is considering the possibility of launching its own digital currency.

The digital currency could share information with the police and tax authorities

On October 16, The Logic media reported that the Bank of Canada is exploring possible opportunities and challenges related to the launch of its own digital currency. The central bank allegedly believes that a public central bank digital currency (CBDC) could be the answer to the direct threat that cryptocurrencies apparently present.

The document, entitled "Central Bank Money: The Next Generation", was prepared for the current Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, for a board meeting in September 2018 and was presented as part of a research project of Two years on whether or not the bank should launch its own CBDC.

On October 17, an internal source from the Bank of Canada confirmed to Cointelegraph that the presentation took place. The author of the document, Stephen Murchison, wrote at the time:

"We need to innovate to stay in the game. … the CBDC would have all the benefits (of an asset backed by the central bank) and all the convenience and security of wireless electronic payments."

According to the document, one of the benefits for the Canadian central bank of launching its own digital currency would be the ability to gather more information about its citizens than is possible when people use cash. This personal data would not be shared with the beneficiary, but could be shared with the police or tax authorities, the document says.

However, in an email sent to Cointelegraph, Josianne Menard, a spokesman for the central bank, said the bank had not yet made any decision on whether to launch its own digital currency, adding:

"Our work at CBDC is exploratory, given the technological advances and the important public service that banknotes provide to Canadians."

China intensifies the development of a CBDC

Cointelegraph recently reported that RBC Capital Markets analysts suggested that suffocating Facebook Pound could leave the field open to the CBDC backed by the Chinese yuan to dominate emerging economies. RBC wrote to customers:

"If US regulators rule out Libra and decide not to write regulations to encourage crypto innovation in the US, China's CBDC could be strategically positioned to become the de facto global digital currency in emerging economies ".

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