Benzinga | Sep 30, 2021 11:16AM EDT

Experts From PayPal, Google, Visa, Spotify To Help Bank Of England Develop Digital Currency

The Bank of England has assembled a panel of cryptocurrency experts from leading tech companies to contribute to researching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the U.K.

What Happened: According to a statement issued by the U.K.'s central bank on Thursday, the CBDC Technology Forum will feature a number of executives who "will help the Bank to understand the technological challenges of designing, implementing and operating a CBDC."

Included in the list of technology experts were Edwin Aoki, PayPal Holdings Inc's (NASDAQ:PYPL) chief technology officer of blockchain and cryptocurrency; Mark Shaw, director of global payments strategy at Spotify Technology S.A (NYSE:SPOT); Will Drewry, the principal software engineer at Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL); and David MacKeith, principal technology advisor at Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services.

Mastercard Inc's (NYSE:MA) VP of blockchain and digital assets Patrick O'Donnell and Visa Inc's (NYSE:V) head of solution architecture Max Malcolm also joined the panel.

Like several other countries, the U.K. has begun researching the benefits of a digital currency for its financial ecosystem.

In November 2020, the Treasury Department of the U.K. said it was committed to leading the global conversation on new technologies like stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies.

"New technologies such as stablecoins -- privately-issued digital currencies -- could transform the way people store and exchange their money, making payments cheaper and faster," stated the Treasury at the time.

Price Action: In the last 24-hours, the crypto market recorded a 1.88% increase in overall market cap, which stood at $1.9 trillion at press time. The leading digital asset Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading at $43,225, gaining 2.3% over 24 hours.

Photo: Jack Finnigan on Unsplash.