Bitcoin might have a place in the world, claims Chairman of the United States’ Federal Reserve

Since the conception, and the subsequent popularity of virtual assets, central banks and cryptocurrencies have had a long history of trying to diminish each other’s importance in the financial market.

With such a history in the rear-view mirror , a lot of crypto-enthusiasts and proponents were surprised to hear the recent remarks made by Jerome Powell regarding Bitcoin.

In a recent testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra, Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, raised a lot of concerns with regard to the social media giant’s proposed cryptocurrency. However, he made news after he suggested that Bitcoin might have a place in the world, stating that he visualized, “a return to an era where multiple currencies are used in the United States.”

During the testimony, Powell was queried by the Board about whether the introduction of a cryptocurrency system would jeopardize the need for a reserve fiat currency.

Powell admitted that there was a possibility that it could happen. However, cryptocurrencies were yet to be adopted widely across the world, he said.

Powell added that Bitcoin was a “good example,” claiming that the virtual asset was hardly used for making any traditional payments. Instead, the Fed Chairman insisted that Bitcoin was used more like an alternative to Gold, than anything else.

Powell said,

“It’s a store of value. It’s a speculative store of value like gold. People have been talking about it since cryptocurrencies emerged but we haven’t seen it but that’s not to say we won’t see it. If we do see it, yes you could see a return to an era in the US when we had multiple different currencies.”

Powell’s comments were picked up by multiple Bitcoin proponents in the community, as the cryptospace rejoiced about receiving noteworthy validation from a representative of a major Central Bank.

Barry Silbert, the man behind the “Drop gold, Buy bitcoin” initiative, tweeted,

“How far we’ve come. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve just compared bitcoin to gold. Folks, it’s happening.