For the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament, crypto-currencies do not pose a threat to sovereign currencies. Regulators should treat them like any other financial instrument and not prohibit them.
As Coindesk reports, ECON has published a lengthy 33-page report on cryptocurrencies. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Warsaw Institute of Economic and Social Development in Poland.
In the paper "Virtual currencies and central bank monetary policy: the challenges ahead", ECON considers cryptocurrency "a contemporary form of private money".
According to the commission, crypto-currencies offer advantages such as relatively secure transactions, transparent and fast and their use on a global scale regardless of borders. However, they would not threaten central banks and currencies such as the euro but could become private currencies in their own right.
ECON then explains that the anonymous and cross-border properties of crypto-currencies pose a real challenge for the financial regulators but that the prohibition was not a solution, the organization wrote:
"Economists who reject crypto-currencies and regard them as a new scam, an embodiment of monetary utopia or as a tool to launder money are wrong. Crypto-currencies respond to a real demand on the market and will probably remain for some time. Legislators and regulators should not ignore cryptocurrencies and should not ban them either. "