The governor of the Bank of England said that the blockchain technology was not “sufficiently mature or reliable”

The governor of the Bank of England has said that it has no use for the technology underpinning bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and has warned that despite their hype they were unlikely to be “the future of money”.

Mark Carney said that he saw little chance of bitcoin displacing traditional currencies and that the Bank had concluded that its blockchain technology was not “sufficiently mature or reliable” to replace existing payment systems.

Virtual currencies based on nothing more than computer code would have to adhere soon to the “same standards as the rest of the financial system”, he said, adding: “Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities.”

Adopting a more moderate approach than some senior regulators, the governor