Following the publication of a consultation paper outlining the planned digital pound, which has been dubbed “Britcoin” by the general public, the UK is one step closer to creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The Bank of England (BoE) and the UK Treasury contributed to the publication of the 116-page consultation paper on February 7. On top of that, a technology working paper was published that delves into both technical and economic design issues.

CBDCs, like the digital pound, can co-exist in what the paper’s authors believe is a “mixed payments economy,” despite the rise of privately issued stablecoins in recent years, according to the paper’s findings. .

“The digital pound need not be the predominant form of money to achieve its public policy objectives in the same way that cash coexists with private money. It is possible that the digital pound coexists with other types of currency, such as stablecoins

Although the Bank of England (BoE) and the Treasury Department (Treasury) have expressed optimism that a digital version of the pound will be introduced by 2025 “at the earliest”, they are still not one hundred percent sure that this will actually happen.

According to the report, “HM Bank and Treasury assess that there is likely to be a need for the UK to have a digital pound”, however no decision can currently be made to adopt such a currency.

According to the document, the main objective behind the launch of the digital pound is to “promote innovation, choice and efficiency in internal payments” and to ensure that money issued by the UK central bank continues to serve as “an anchor of confidence and security” in the country’s monetary system.

“For the digital pound to play the role that cash plays in anchoring the monetary system, it must be usable and sufficiently adopted by households and businesses,” says this quote from the Financial Times. “For the digital pound to play the role that cash plays in anchoring the monetary system, it must be usable and sufficiently adopted by households and businesses.”

Users will have access to e-GBP after having established a connection to an API that is managed by the private sector and which, in turn, links to the central ledger.

Additional programming capabilities will be made available, including smart contracts and atomic swaps, which make it possible for assets to move across networks.