The UK’s plans to explore its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a testament to the increasingly mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and the realization of its potential to truly revolutionize the way we move money around the world today. 

Rishi’s Sunak's recent announcement claimed that a Britcoin could tackle some of the challenges of popular cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin – i.e., from a regulatory and volatility point of view. However, Joe Baguley, VP, and CTO, EMEA at VMware believes the chancellor must also consider the sustainability cost of introducing Britcoin en-masse and how it could foil the government’s green ambitions due to the unjustifiably high environmental burden of cryptocurrencies.

Joe joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about the fundamental mistake the founders of bitcoin made by building the cryptocurrency on a proof-of-work blockchain which consumes an incredible amount of energy. We also discuss why we cannot unpick the environmental problems proof of work blockchains have caused by plugging renewable resources into powering them.

If the UK considers its own CBDC seriously, it must learn from the industry’s early mistakes and ensure that it is green by design. We explore what building a more sustainable blockchain ecosystem would look like and the role that VMware will play in a new future of work from any device, location, and time.