After news of Barclays testing blockchain technology last month, it has been reported that Citibank are experimenting with a digital currency they have named CitiCoin, according to TechCrunch.
Using bitcoin and blockchain technology as a template, Citigroup have built their own cryptocurrency which is encouraging as it highlights that they are modernising their research and development arm.
Head of Citigroup Innovations Lab, Kenneth Moore explained that there are three separate systems that deploy blockchain distributed ledger technologies, however there is no real money passing through the labs at present.
“We also have an equivalent to bitcoin up and running, again with the labs, so we can mine what we call a “Citicoin”, for want of a better term. It’s in the labs, but it’s to make sure we are at the leading edge of this technology and that we can exploit the opportunities within it,” Moore said as quoted in IBT.
This form of payment can also be used for cross border transactions, which is important as this is something that banks want to have more control over. TechCrunch says that banks are not afraid of cryptocurrencies, they are just nervous and regulators will be forced to take notice of the emerging digital currencies.
It has been rumoured that Citigroup have been interested in digital payments for a few months as Bitcoin Magazine noticed a line in a presentation which revealed that the bank see the development of cryptocurrency as certain. “Due to the potential benefits, we believe the adoption of Digital Money is inevitable. While we believe that the use of Digital Money is certain, the future of specific cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is less clear,” TechCrunch reported.
