will launch next year. we plan to conduct the survey biannually to seek views on key financial system risks and developments, as well as measure overall confidence in the canadian financial system. the survey will support our surveillance of the financial system, inform policy decision making and help strengthen our network. we are finalizing the details and expect to launch in early 2018. the results will be published in the fsr. conclusion 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches as a central bank, we rely heavily on our excellent models and incoming data for our forecasts. yet we know that the intelligence we gather is a critically important complement to them, particularly during times of transition or when sentiment is playing a bigger role. this information gives us a deeper understanding of how the economy is performing and how markets are functioning and evolving. and what we learn from all of it — our models, the data, our analysis and intelligence from our contacts — feeds into our judgment on policy actions. i want to emphasize that although our policy judgments are guided, in part, by our intelligence gathering, we know that financial markets are dynamic and that we will never have a perfectly complete, up - to - the - minute picture of all activity. we are realistic about this and are constantly learning and seeking to know more. so it is essential that we communicate regularly with participants across all dimensions, be they investors or issuers, the operators of financial market infrastructures, regulators or other capital market facilitators. and we share much of what we learn. while we are committed to transparency, we are mindful of the need to respect the confidentiality of what we hear from individual firms. we publish our findings broadly in the fsr and other bank publications and in cfif minutes posted on our website to educate and raise awareness both domestically and internationally. so let ’ s talk. our ultimate goal is to promote a stable and resilient financial system that serves all market participants. we need and value your collaboration and feedback. 1 bank of canada act. 2 the governor of the bank of canada is a member of the senior advisory committee, a non - statutory body that discusses macroprudential policy. its other members are the federal deputy minister of finance, the superintendent of financial institutions, the chair of canada deposit insurance corporation, and the commissioner of the financial consumer agency of canada. 3 bank for international settlements, “ market intelligence gathering at central banks, ” december 2016. 4 under the terms of basel iii, the minimum amount

kinds of users : • investors, who should be fully aware of the risks they are taking ; • residents of countries where there is no trustworthy national currency ; and • those undertaking illicit transactions, including tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing, for which the property of pseudonymity makes them an ideal way to move funds. the crypto ecosystem so far, i have been talking about digital tokens launched with the ambition of becoming a form of currency. now, many digital tokens are being created without any such ambition. every month, dozens of new crypto products are launched through initial coin offerings ( icos ). in an ico, investors purchase a new digital token in exchange for cash or for other, more established cryptoassets. some of these resemble the initial public offerings that private companies use to raise capital by offering their stock to the public for the first time. in this way, they are like crowdfunding — a means to raise equity capital without jumping through all the regulatory hoops needed to issue publicly traded securities. other icos offer the purchaser the right to use services on a platform that has yet to be built — and are thus more like the economic equivalent of a gift card. in yet other cases, the promised benefits to the purchaser are more nebulous. 6 see the results of the 2017 bitcoin omnibus survey conducted by the bank of canada. 7 see bitcoin average transaction fee. - 5those icos that function in a similar way as shares in a new company raise all the same issues as any other stock offering. their value is based on the profits from some enterprise, so investors need to be able to verify that the enterprise actually exists and keep track of what it is doing with the funding it raises. in practice, icos have not always met that standard. for example, failure to meet funding targets hasn ’ t always resulted in the return of money to investors. and in cases where funding targets were exceeded, it ’ s not always clear how icos are using the extra money. thus, while there are certainly advantages to a flexible, technologically advanced method of funding innovative enterprises, investors in icos need to be wary of fraud and misrepresentation. given the steady introduction of new types, crypto products are often hard to classify. many will prove to be short - lived. yet it would be a mistake to dismiss all these innovations as fleeting fads. some products may turn out to be