Bitcoin Suisse founder: European banks will soon start to offer Bitcoin accounts

Bitcoin Suisse founder Niklas Nikolajsen said it is only a matter of time before European banks will be offering bitcoin accounts.

Although digital currencies are faster and cheaper than traditional banking methods, the possibility that the banks will offer bitcoin wallets soon was thought to be unrealistic.

In an interview with finews.ch at the Fintech Conference Finance 2.0, Nikolajsen predicted the change to happen by the end of 2016. However, he did not specify which European banks would offer bitcoin wallets first. The only thing he mentioned is that it would “not be an exotic bank.”

One of the biggest issues regarding such change would be to handle private keys. Those who have access to their private key can spend bitcoins associated to that account. If banks were offering bitcoin wallets to their customers, they would be required to give up the control of those particular keys. If that is the case, such move would raise a number of security issues.

The central bank of UK, however, has a different idea on blockchain revolution. Andrew Hauser, executive director for banking, payments and financial resilience of the Bank of England, said “there is no likelihood of such an extreme revolution occurring any time soon.”

“Much more work is needed across a whole range of issues, including: speed and scaleability; confidentiality protections; developing common protocols; integrating cash and securities movements; and establishing regulatory and legal norms,” explained Hauser, according to Fortune.