Central Banks and the Future of Money | C.D. Howe Institute
Central banks around the world are now giving serious consideration to the pros and cons of making central bank digital currencies available to the general public, says a new study from the C.D. Howe Institute.
Cambodia's National Bank Working on Blockchain-Based Payment System Renewal
The National Bank of Cambodia's Project Bakong is a Hyperledger Iroha-based payment system renewal project. A pilot with dozens of banks will soon be launched. The ultimate target is to provide instant payments via a mobile app.
New E-shekel could ease cross-border payments says LSE report
"A new digital currency, which would facilitate cross-border payments between Israel and the West Bank, has been proposed in a new report from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)."
Central Bank of Russia Says CBDCs Can Minimize Costs, but Privacy Is a Concern
The Central Bank of Russia is analyzing the impact of issuing a central bank digital currency in a paper published on April 18. The intention is to better understand possible use cases for CBDCs.
The Hidden Effects of Crypto Money Laundering Rules
A growth in the liquidity of crypto-assets will boost interest in and feasibility of using the underlying technology for tracking purposes. An effective use of blockchain technology would make it much harder to launder money using crypto than digital fiat currency.
"The precursors of money, along with language, enabled early modern humans to solve problems of cooperation that other animals cannot – including problems of reciprocal altruism, kin altruism, and the mitigation of aggression. These precursors shared with non-fiat currencies very specific characteristics – they were not merely symbolic or decorative objects."
How the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is digitizing its dollar
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank plans to launch a pilot in 2020 of a blockchain-based digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar. This marks the first time that a central bank will have issued digital legal tender using the blockchain.
Motivations and prospects for central bank digital currency
So far, most central banks remain a long way from issuing CBDC of any kind. But given that technology has been progressing fast in the settlement and payment areas, as well as DLT, it is possible central banks may increase their interest in retail and wholesale CBDC proposals based on DLT and consider actual implementation seriously in the near future.
Central Banks Like Blockchain But Aren’t Decentralizing
The only takers to date for blockchain-based CBDC are minuscule island nations. This may indicate there is a case to be made for adopting a distributed ledger format in certain geographies. Or it may mean the product is dead on arrival.
Chinese Central Bank Fines Five Businesses in Beijing for Refusal to Accept Cash Payments
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is ensuring that Chinese businesses continue to accept cash despite the rapid spread of mobile payments throughout the country’s economy. On 23 April PBOC announced that it had fined five companies in Beijing for refusal to accept cash payments.
The Riksbank proposes a review of the concept of legal tender
The Riksbank proposes that a committee be tasked with reviewing the concept of legal tender and role of central bank money in a digitalised economy, and the role and responsibility of both the state and the private sector on the payment market.
Enabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide
The central message of this IMF paper is that with readily available tools a central bank can enable deep negative rates whenever needed—thus maintaining the power of monetary policy in the future to end recessions within a short time.
IoCash is a B2B platform that enables companies and their users to work with fiat money on blockchain. Using the ethereum blockchain capabilities, and plugging into the traditional monetary system, we are making it possible for the real world to work with this amazing technology and its capabilities. Our clients can define and implement businesses and money based rules natively.
Stablecoins by central banks: benefits for regulators, users, economy
For this article, we asked two questions. One question was about the benefits for a central bank from issuing a stablecoin and another was about the benefits for users and the economy from a stablecoin issued by a central bank.
Venezuela’s Failed Cryptocurrency Is the Future of Money
Perhaps the chaos in Venezuela will be remembered for fusing—if only in theory—the technological and financial ideas that could someday allow us to link volatile resource prices with risky development to promote the economy’s general welfare.
Digital Renminbi: A Fiat Coin to Make M0 Great Again
Contrary to what many think, China does not oppose blockchain technology. Rather, it takes issue with bitcoin and other privately issued cryptocurrencies, which it fears may facilitate financial fraud and capital flight. The PBOC has in fact had an initiative for issuing a blockchain-based digital renminbi since 2014. The project has already generated 71 patents and has initiated a trial operation for an interbank digital check and billing platform.
Bundesbank sees dangers in digital central bank money
Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann warned that widespread use of CBDC could have serious consequences. He said easy access to digital money could exacerbate bank runs in times of crises, leading to a faster collapse of lenders, and that even in good times it would fundamentally change the business model of banks.
Central Bank of the Bahamas to sign contract for digital currency system
The Central Bank of The Bahamas will enter into an official agreement with the executives of NZIA Ltd. for the design and implementation of Project Sand Dollar on May 30.
This Bank of Canada paper shows that when banks have no market power, issuing a deposit-like CBDC would would shift deposits away from the banking system, reducing bank lending. Otherwise, issuing a deposit-like CBDC with a proper interest rate would encourage banks to pay higher interest or offer better services to keep their customers, attracting more deposits and extending more loans. In fact, the CBDC would serve as an outside option for households, thus limiting banks’ market power, and improve the efficiency of bank intermediation.
The Potential Decline of Cash Usage and Related Implications
The Congressional Research Service examined the decline in cash usage in the United States and the potential rise of alternative payment systems, including bitcoin or other digital assets, in the purchase of goods and services.
