The City of London has long been considered the financial hub of Europe, and the inclusion of Bitcoin company, Blockchain, on last weeks trade delegation to South East Asia, suggests the UK Government may be positioning itself to take a similar role in the world of cryptocurrency. Blockchain may be considered an interesting choice to accompany Prime Minister, David Cameron, on such a visit alongside such British stalwarts as Rolls Royce and Lloyds of London. But trade missions are designed to give a more holistic (yet of course unabashedly positive) view of the potential of British trade partners, indicating that …

The UK government announced a US$14.6 million research fund to look into opportunities in digital currencies. Publishing the results of the five month consultation on the future of digital currencies, the government outlined a series of recommendations and the next few steps on their approach to the emerging sector. “The government is launching a new research initiative which will bring together the Research Councils, Alan Turing Institute and Digital Catapult with industry in order to address the research opportunities and challenges for digital currency technology, and will increase research funding in this area by £10 million to support this.” As …