The UK government is launching an inquiry into digital currencies and the technology enabler, Blockchain

The British government, keen to balance regulation without limiting innovation and jeopardizing businesses, is nervously greeting the digital technology, weighing up both the risks and benefits it brings.

Striking the right balance between regulating digital currencies to provide adequate protection for consumers and businesses, whilst not stifling innovation, is crucial,” Nicky Morgan, MP and chair of the treasury committee said.

The UK inquiry will look at the potential impact blockchain will have on banks and the wider financial infrastructure and the role unregulated cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has in Britain.

We will also examine the potential benefits of cryptocurrencies and the technology underpinning them, how they can create innovative opportunities, and to what extent they could disrupt the economy and replace traditional means of payment,” Nicky Morgan, added in a statement.

“It’s time Whitehall & Westminster Understood Cyrptocurrency”

Member of the committee, Alison McGovern MP, said it’s time Whitehall and Westminster “understood cryptocurrency better, and thought more clearly about the policy environment for blockchain technology.”

Bitcoin is a peer to peer electronic version of cash, developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, to send payments directly from one party to another without needing a bank.

Put simply, Blockchain is a chain of blocks each filled with data that links to the next block and the data that block holds thus creating a relation between the blocks and connecting information. Each block is anonymous but the data inside is totally transparent.