Cryptocurrency is a global currency that will be Sri Lanka’s future too
View(s):While digitisation is happening around the world and Sri Lanka is moving on the same track as other developing nations, cryptocurrency is something the country needs to seriously consider in the future. Speaking to a few industry experts at the recently held ISACA Sri Lanka Chapter conference on cryptocurrency at the Hilton Residencies in Colombo, the Business Times was able to gather many views on this new form of currency for trading purposes. LOLC Technologies MD and CEO Conrad Dias told the Business Times that cryptocurrency is a very innovative and disruptive technology which can add a lot of value to many organisations in the world. It has all the value that a normal currency should have in terms of the device ability and acceptance. Cryptocurrency is created in a much secure way using cryptographic principles where its value does not diminish within the ecosystem.
“There are thousands of cryptocurrencies innovated around the world and different cryptographic algorithms are used to create them under different security levels. The underlining technology is amazing which will help even a country like Sri Lanka due to the number of opportunities hidden within the technology. The three key features unique in this technology are the asset component, transfer of currency to another party. All transactions are irreversible and are stored in a ledger which cannot be modified,” added Mr. Dias. He also mentioned that cryptocurrency is a decentralised ecosystem without a central authority to control it. It is the network that controls it. The escrow arrangement is not required in this technology whereas it has a built-in escrow agreement.
Speaking on the Bitcoin evolution, he said Bitcoin being one of the established cryptocurrencies in the world, is generated for the work one does to confirm a transaction which is called bitcoin mining. After including a number of transactions into a block chain and you work on a complex algorithmic equation to confirm those transactions, you earn bitcoins. 10 minutes of time and enormous computing power is required to do the transaction. For every 10 minutes, 25 bitcoins are generated. The total number of bitcoins that can be generated around the world is only 21 billion. Different cryptocurrencies have different numbers.
Mr. Dias noted that only a few people know about cryptocurrency in Sri Lanka whereas the technology is not greatly understood by the people to use it. Legal status to use cryptocurrency is not established in Sri Lanka where internationally some governments have banned it and some have been silent. Cryptocurrency is totally in the cyber space which is technology driven and no one knows the kind of threats that can come one’s way. Though there are cyber security systems, your system can get hacked anytime. Since the value of cryptocurrencies are high it attracts hackers.
ISACA was previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association but now uses only its acronym,
ISACA Sri Lanka President Parakum Pathirana told the conference that in most foreign countries, coffee shops and shopping malls trade using cryptocurrencies. It’s not only about the crypto but also the block chain and other technologies associated with it, that can be used in certain other applications, especially on information security websites, he added. The amount of money spent to maintain the physical currency is a big issue which needs to be addressed. “The whole problem with cryptocurrency is that how do you ensure it is safe. Cryptocurrency will not be something immediate in Sri Lanka but something to look forward to in the future which might take five to 10 years. With digitisation happening in Sri Lanka, probably this will be the future of transactions,” he said.
ISACA Director Jo Stewart Rattray said that there is a lot of hard cash transactions in banks and fuel stations which are point of thefts for robbery and this can be prevented with cryptocurrency coming into the scene. She also noted that there is no such thing as 100 per cent security in a developed world. But this can be pretty secure than maintaining physical cash. No country in the world has make cryptocurrency its mainstream currency. It’s a process of educating the people on how this could benefit them as well as the country at large in terms of cashless and card less transactions.
(RM)