The Digital pound (also known as digital sterlingorbritcoin)[1] is a proposed central bank digital currency from the Bank of England. It is intended to supplement, not replace, cash in the United Kingdom.[1] The value of the digital pound would be the same as cash pound sterling so that £10 of digital pounds would have the same value as a banknote of £10.[1]
It would differ from a cryptocurrencyorcryptoasset because it would be created and backed by the Bank of England and the Government of the United Kingdom, rather than by a company or anonymous person or group.[1]
Apublic consultation on the digital pound lasting four months was announced on 6 February 2023.[2] A final decision on the implementation of a digital pound would be expected around 2025, with consumer usage expected in the late 2020s.[2]
In a March 2024 episode of BBC Radio 4's Money Box, Harriett Baldwin, chair of the UK Parliament's Treasury Select Committee, said a digital pound would not be introduced before 2030, and that people’s holdings would probably be limited to £10,000 as a way of avoiding the possibility of worsening any run on a bank; the European Union was considering a limit of 6,000 euros. In reply to a consultation, the government had said it would not seek to control people’s use of a digital currency but did not say it would not look at the data to see how the money was moving around.[3][4]
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