Nasdaq Beatifies Bitcoin, CBN Take Action
The world is changing. Nigeria has to understand that as quickly as possible. Nasdaq, a U.S. based stock exchange, will offer bitcoin futures, starting in 2018. That means that people will have the capacity to bet on the booming cryptocurrency. The brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald joins in the fray.
Also, regulators in U.S. (CFTC) also noted that they would allow CME Group, and CBOE to list bitcoin futures after they were able to demonstrate that their proposed structured contracts and arrangements on trading met regulatory requirements.
This is the world we are now. Bitcoin is here to stay. It is up more than 1,000 this year and it has topped $11k. It is not just Bitcoin, Ether is there also.
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I worked in South Africa all through last week. I saw what South Africa is plotting.
While using Bitcoin as a currency will be risky, as I have noted in the Defect in Bitcoin. Yet, just as gold, Bitcoin can be a means to store value. The inability to be a currency does not take away that ability. No one uses gold as a currency; but it has served some as a means to store value. That is the trajectory that Bitcoin is following.
But Nigeria can get into this game. I propose that it creates a cryptocurrency tied to the Naira and supervised by the Central Bank. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) should lead to put it in our Futures in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. With no supranational banking regulator, Bitcoin could introduce welfare losses which could be consequential to Nigeria. Yet, Nigeria cannot afford to be decoupled from the next big thing which is blockchain. Blockchain, with contracts honored in the Nigerian courts, will need a currency. I do not want it to be Bitcoin. I want something that correlates with paper Naira. Give me a NaiCoin or whatever it will be called.
Yes, the fluidity in blockchain may not happen without a digital currency. In territories, it makes sense to localize that digital currency that governs that contract. That will remove many legal issues during disputes. (Think of having a contract powered by blockchain, and denominated on Bitcoin, to be backed by a Nigerian bank when CBN has not approved such. You may be out of luck.)
Nasdaq beatifies Bitcoin. Nigeria needs to plan in the local space.
Still boils to government taking action, without which everything is more or less a mirage.
