UK Treasury Taps Spy Agency to Help Regulate Bitcoin

Governments all over the world are very concerned about Bitcoin for various reasons. Not only does it pose a major risk to nations’ economic stability, but it’s also a new form of money that can’t be controlled. The UK Treasury is growing concerned as well, which is why it has tasked spy agency GCHQ to review the potential risks associated with Bitcoin.

Spy Agency Investigates Bitcoin

It is somewhat surprising to see how the UK government aims to tackle the Bitcoin dilemma moving forward. It seems the UK Treasury is very concerned over what Bitcoin is and how it will affect the country’s economy. It is pretty difficult to gauge the full impact of this new form of money, as there is still a lot of research and development to be done in this regard. 

More specifically, the UK Treasury has tapped the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to review the potential risks associated with Bitcoin. Most people will not have heard of GCHQ, although that isn’t entirely surprising. It is one of the UK’s top spy agencies, which hardly makes any headlines these days. Probing the Bitcoin risks will be quite challenging even for this agency, though, and it all depends on how biased it is toward this new form of money.

To address the Bitcoin problem, the GCHQ will employ signals intelligence to the best of its ability. Considering that Bitcoin has become a big deal in the UK this year, it is only normal that we will see more efforts focusing on the risks Bitcoin may bring to the table. Gaining a better understanding of how the world’s leading cryptocurrency works will be one of the big challenges to tackle head-on.

As one would expect, the spy agency can’t successfully tackle this problem alone. It will need the help of experts across multiple industries, including mathematicians, blockchain specialists, and even academics. Rest assured there will be a large focus on what the spy agency discovers and how it will present its findings to the UK Treasury in the future. It is evident Bitcoin has a lot of hype across the UK right now, and the approach of learning more instead of banning it outright is commendable.

At the same time, this doesn’t mean we won’t see additional Bitcoin regulations in the United Kingdom. The UK Treasury unveiled plans to introduce more guidelines not too long ago, and it is evident most of these guidelines will be modified based on the findings of the spy agency. Whether or not the resulting regulations will be positive remains to be determined. Most countries around the world lean toward cracking down on Bitcoin activity, and the UK may not be all that different.

All things considered, the United Kingdom can be a major player in the Bitcoin ecosystem moving forward. For some reason, Europe is still far behind when it comes to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Whether or not that situation will change in the future may depend on what the UK Treasury decides to do in terms of regulation. The recent price increase has certainly shaken things up quite a bit, and all governments need to play catch up in this regard.