Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF, defends cryptocurrencies.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, presented her vision for the future of blockchain.Christine Lagarde speaks in favor of bringing crypto-assets closer to the mainstream market. The IMF chief promotes an open minded, regulatory framework that allows the “creative process to pay off”.On April 16, 2017, Christine Lagarde discusses the promise that crypto-assets can offer that, according to her, will lead to “neither crypto-condemnation nor crypto-euphoria”. Indeed she believes that crypto-assets will change our daily lives, particularly in the ways we save, we invest and pay our bills. Therefore, “governments should keep an open mind and work towards an impartial regulatory framework that minimizes risks while allowing the creative process to bear fruit.” Lagarde talks about the advantages of crypto-assets that are fast and inexpensive thanks to blockchain technology. They enable secure exchanges and will bring “a diversification of the financial landscape” and “a better balance between centralized and decentralized service providers”. Lagarde illustrated that blockchain technology provides secure and important storage for many industries such as healthcare, who will benefit from this technology by making confidential medical data accessible to authorized users.Lagarde warns that crypto-assets must “win the trust and support of consumers and authorities.” For this, it is important to bring the global regulatory community together to reach an international agreement on the role of crypto-assets. The G20 will fully discuss the topic at its annual summit due to be held in England this November.According to Lagarde, the role of the IMF is to help develop a “fair regulatory agenda” that protects against risks without discouraging innovation.

Read Christine Lagarde’s full article An Even-handed Approach to Crypto-Assets