Electronic banking digital currency

6. On the issue of issuing their own digital currency, central banks are always less thunderous. Central banks around the world are considering issuing their own digital currencies to compete with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, but they have been unable to do so for a long time

the media's attention to the central bank's digital currency has increased significantly, especially after Zuckerberg testified in Congress on the Libra issue and Christina Lagarde acknowledged the "clear demand" for stable currency at her first media reception as president of the European Central Bank, which seems to have changed the public's view on this matter, Let many people in cryptocurrency community think that cbdcs is in sight<

according to the latest survey report released by the bank for International Settlements, central banks in the past seven years have been investigating this technology and assessing its impact. Of the 63 central banks surveyed, 55 said they were unlikely to issue cbdcs in the next three years, and only one reported that they were "highly likely to issue large-scale cbdcs in the next three to six years."

although the proportion of central banks studying cbdcs is very high, the crux of the problem is that it is mainly theoretical and investigative work. Only five central banks have concted more in-depth research and real project development or experimentation - but that still does not mean that they will necessarily issue cbdcs

through close observation, it is more and more obvious that both Libra recently released by Facebook and the new stable currency assets have had a significant impact on the central bank. Today's situation took hundreds of years to form, but it changed in a few months; Competition, the most terrifying and unfamiliar concept that has never been thought of before and penetrated into the elite society of central banks, is now knocking at the door

it can be said that the solution to the current situation is still unclear. Some people who are familiar with these things even say that they are bluffing. However, in Lagarde's own words, the slow and wait-and-see regulatory approach can no longer meet the needs

1. What is central bank digital currency<

what is the difference between central bank digital currency CBDC and other digital currencies

CBDC is a new form of currency, which is directly issued by the central bank in digital form as legal tender. The current form of legal currency is cash, reserve deposit or balance settlement< There are two main differences between CBDC and other digital currencies (including cryptocurrency and other forms of central bank currency):

1. CBDC has nothing to do with cryptoassets. They're not decentralized, they don't have to be blockchain based, and they're certainly not anonymous, they're not unlicensed, they're not censored< 2. Contrary to the current digital cash, the operation structure of CBDC will be different from other forms of central bank currency. CBDC has more powerful functions. They are programmable, can generate interest, can be cleared in near real time, and have cheaper handling charges and wider openness

when designing CBDC, the speed of central banks is different. Different central banks adopt their own approach. However, in general, there are three problems being explored: whether CBDC should be based on token or account number, whether CBDC should be batch (only open to banks) or retail (open to the public), and whether it should be based on DLT

when CBDC is to be implemented, things will become complicated, and there are many thorny problems to be considered

for example, once CBDC is launched, does it need to cancel cash? Should CBDC carry interest? Should they have face value like cash? Or linked to the total price index? What impact will this have on commercial banks? What about anonymity and privacy? All these questions need to be answered<

2. Motivation for issuing CBDC

in the 2017 staff discussion paper, the Bank of Canada gave six reasons for issuing CBDC in an article entitled "central bank digital currency: motivation and impact":

1. Ensure that the central bank provides sufficient cash to the public, and maintain the seigniorage revenue of the central bank

2, Support non-traditional monetary policy

3. Rece overall risk and improve financial stability

4. Improve payment competitiveness

5. Promote financial inclusiveness

6. Curb criminal activities

looking back at the bank for International Settlements survey we analyzed earlier, payment security and domestic efficiency are selected as the most important motives of the central bank. According to a large number of papers published by the central bank and other large financial institutions, for developed countries, the transformation into a cashless society is the main driving factor, while for developing countries, financial inclusiveness, cost rection and operational efficiency are the main motivation

throughout the rest of the reports and the literature that can be found, the fierce competition brought about by bitcoin and other innovations in the cryptocurrency instry, as well as the clear need for "one step ahead", of course, are not listed as the reasons for issuing CBDC< The advantages and potential risks of CBDC are very low.

if the central bank starts to launch CBDC and succeeds in the end, there are many potential benefits

from a technical point of view, CBDC is much better than the current form of legal currency. They can be tracked better, collect taxes more conveniently, transmit monetary policy better, have better financial inclusiveness, and rece the cost of procing physical currency

the most obvious advantage is that payment is cheaper and faster, whether it is domestic payment or cross-border payment

in addition to the design and implementation problems, a key problem of issuing CBDC is that CBDC may increase the risk of bank operation. However, this only happens when banks promise that their deposits can be converted into CBDC on demand, which is not necessarily the case, according to the Bank of England document

4. Facts on the ground

how far is it from us to see a real CBDC appear in the market? It's hard to estimate, but at present, we can sum up the current situation in one sentence: all talk but no practice

if we put aside the failed digital currencies of Ecuador, Tunisia and Venezuela, we can only do theoretical research, a small amount of experiments, and issue some feasible CBDC issuance announcements supported by the state in the future

the most famous CBDC projects in progress are: e-peso in Uruguay (the project was successfully tested in 2018), DCEP in China, "project Inthanon" in Thailand, e-krona in Sweden (still in the research stage)...

5. The revolution has not yet been successful, and comrades still need to work hard

considering the factors mentioned above, Most of the headlines about CBDC's upcoming release are groundless. All projects scheled to be released this year have been delayed

in fact, there is still a long way to go for the birth of CBDC, and to convince the public, we need more than a statement. Given the current situation, it seems that CBDC and other cryptocurrencies may not affect each other - at least for now.

7. The virtual currency we use on the Internet, such as q-coin or other game currency, is strictly virtual goods or intermediate goods. It is not money and does not have the purchasing power of legal tender. Bitcoin, which is more talked about in the market, is also different. It is a decentralized virtual currency realized by using blockchain technology, which is easy to facilitate money laundering. Therefore, the application of blockchain technology should not be copied. If the central bank issues digital currency, it should be a kind of centralized currency. The legal currency issued by the central bank, encrypted and supported by national credit, should meet the regulatory requirements
a few days ago, Indian Prime Minister modi announced the issuance of a new currency aimed at combating tax evasion and money laundering. In fact, if the central bank issues digital currency with perfect technology and mature mechanism, it will have better effect. Because the digital currency, in addition to anti-counterfeiting, with the help of blockchain technology, makes the capital data traceable and highly transparent. These features can also be used for macro data statistics and monitoring, which has positive significance for big data risk control
as for what bank digital currency is, the central bank requested at the meeting on January 20 this year that the research team of the people's Bank of China should actively absorb the important achievements and practical experience of digital currency research at home and abroad, continue to promote on the basis of preliminary work, establish a more effective organizational guarantee mechanism, and further clarify the strategic objectives of the central bank in issuing digital currency, Do a good job in tackling key technologies, study the multi scenario application of digital currency, and strive to launch the digital currency issued by the central bank as soon as possible.

8.

E-cash, like paper money, has no value in itself. It only depends on the credit of the issuer to reflect its value. It is a kind of digital information composed of 0 and 1 signed by the bank through electronic means, so it is also called digital currency. It is different from the credit card used now, because the credit card itself is not money, it is just a means of transfer, and e-cash itself is a kind of money, it can be directly used to buy goods. Although it is the same as gold coin and paper money, it does not need physical entity like them. Instead, it can make electronic payment only through data exchange to realize the function of cash. E-cash has the following characteristics:

one is the rapidity of mobile. It can send cash to distant places instantaneously through the network, so it has extremely fast mobility. Because it is a kind of digital information, like the usual data, it can be put in the computer and transmitted by the network. Moreover, it can be sent directly to the store terminal by the consumer terminal, so there is no need to pay the service charge to the intermediate settlement institution. However, because it can transfer large amounts of money to distant places instantaneously, it also increases the monitoring difficulty of financial management institutions, and also causes tax, legal, exchange rate instability and other problems

The other is the anonymity of payment (i.e. it is impossible to know who originally owned the money). Using cash can also achieve anonymity, but it is difficult to achieve it when using electronic settlement services (such as credit card). With the electronization of various social systems, there is a tendency to automatically collect personal secret information. Payment behavior is often the source of all kinds of personal secret information. Therefore, the use of e-cash will be an effective means of self-defense in the future computer society. However, the anonymity of e-cash will also provide the convenience of money laundering for money of unknown origin, so we should try to prevent it

The third is to improve the safety. Because the security measures it adopts are far more perfect than the current credit card, much safer than checking accounts and savings accounts, and will not be stolen or robbed like banknotes and coins

Fourthly, it can save cost. Banknotes need to be printed, transported, preserved, counted, anti-counterfeited and secured, which requires a lot of expenses. It is reported that the annual cost of transporting tangible currency in the United States is as high as US $6 billion, and that in the United Kingdom is as high as 200 million pounds. The cost of money settlement and transportation between the world bank system accounts for 5% of its total management fee. All these expenses can be saved when using e-cash