Norway is the world’s most cashless country but its central bank isn’t keen on bitcoin: ‘It doesn’t preserve stability’

Norway is the world’s most cashless country but its central bank isn’t keen on bitcoin: ‘It doesn’t preserve stability’

Norway is ahead of the game when it comes to things like work-life balance and raising children. You can add to that commerce: Norway is the world's most cashless country, according to its central bank, with just 4% of their payments made with cash and the majority made with contactless cards or digital wallets.

But even with this forward-thinking behavior, the country's central bank is not recommending bitcoin as an alternative to fiat, or government-backed currency, because it's "far too resource-intensive, far too costly and most importantly, it doesn't preserve stability," Oystein Olsen, the governor of Norges Bank, told Bloomberg.

Those who argue in favor of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, often say that it's a hedge against inflation and the U.S. dollar - some bitcoin bulls even think it will eventually overtake the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

However, Olsen does not agree.

"[T]he basic property and task for a central bank and central bank currency is to provide stability in the value of money and in the system, and that is not done by bitcoin," Olsen told Bloomberg.

But because of the growing interest in cryptocurrency globally and the low level of cash use in Norway, Norges Bank deputy governor