TL;DR: Reuters is referring to it as “similar to the SWIFT network,” reporting Japan heads the effort to create an international cryptocurrency payments system to stem money laundering.

Japan Heads Effort to Create International Crypto Payment Network

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system is arguably the most popular banking wire service in use today. SWIFT customers transfer money around the world with relative ease, provided they comply with global banking standards.

Cryptocurrency is a perceived threat to such payment systems. It can do, potentially, all that SWIFT does but without the permissioned aspects and sans bureaucratic minders. Two cryptocurrency users with electronic wallets are able to swish and zap value back and forth with little comparable friction until offboarding into fiat comes, if it comes.

Those were among the major worries when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) met recently and focused upon cryptocurrency regulation proposals like at no other time in the agency’s history. Out of that very gathering, apparently, “Japan’s government is leading a global push to set up an international network for cryptocurrency payments, similar to the SWIFT network used by banks, in an effort to fight money laundering,” Reuters reported, citing “a person familiar with the plan.”

Such a system would not be immediately put in place, and could take years to develop. “A team related to the inter-governmental [FATF] will monitor its development and Japan will cooperate with other countries,” their unnamed source claimed. What remains unclear is why Japan and why SWIFT-like. As a country, Japan is known for being more forward-thinking when it comes to cryptocurrency (Bitcoin Cash, for example, is used widely as a method of payment). SWIFT aspects would seem to impose the very burden cryptocurrency users tend to avoid, almost by definition.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

CONTINUE THE SPICE and check out our piping hot VIDEOS. Our podcast, The CoinSpice Podcast, has amazing guests. Follow CoinSpice on Twitter. Join our Telegram feed to make sure you never miss a post. Drop some BCH at the merch shop — we’ve got some spicy shirts for men and women. Don’t forget to help spread the word about CoinSpice on social media.