Central bank talk of launching cryptocurrencies is all bluff

To the untrained eye, several of the world’s top central banks appear to be rushing towards launching their own cryptocurrencies any day now.

There are many reasons why central bankers are intensely interested in the relatively new world of digital currencies, not least Facebook’s plan to launch one called Libra that has the potential to change the way money works.

And there are just as many reasons why these masters of the monetary universe, such as Mark Carney at the Bank of England and Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank, want to convince commercial bankers they are close to creating their own version of Libra.

Yet, listen carefully to the central bankers, and it soon becomes apparent that all of this talk about launching their own cryptocurrencies is likely to be one big, elaborate bluff.

Ms Lagarde summed up this contradictory position this week when she told the European Parliament that central bank-issued digital currencies were “an area where we have…