From paper money to electronic money to virtual money
1. Application of different
digital currency: fast, economic and safe payment and settlement; Bill finance and supply chain finance; The real right of collateral is digitalized
e-money: the seller sends the buyer's payment instructions to the seller's acquiring bank through the payment gateway; The acquiring bank obtains the authorization from the issuing bank through the bank card network, and sends the authorization information back to the seller through the payment gateway; After obtaining the authorization, the Seller shall send the buyer the shopping completion information. If payment acquisition and payment authorization cannot be completed at the same time, the seller should send payment acquisition request to the acquiring bank through the payment gateway, and transfer the transaction funds from the buyer to the seller's account. The final inter-bank settlement is completed by the payment system between banks
2. Different characteristics
digital currency is characterized by low transaction cost, fast transaction speed and high anonymity
e-currency is characterized by anonymity, saving transaction cost, saving transmission cost, small holding risk, flexible and convenient payment, anti-counterfeiting and anti repetition, and non traceability
Digital currency can be divided into three categories: completely closed, unrelated to the real economy and only used in specific virtual communities, such as world of warcraft gold; It can be purchased in real currency but not converted back to real currency, and can be used to purchase virtual goods and services, such as Facebook credit; It can exchange and redeem with real currency according to a certain ratio. It can purchase both virtual goods and services and real goods and services, such as bitcoine-money: e-cash based on the Internet environment and keeping the binary data representing the value of money in the hard disk of the computer terminal; An electronic wallet that keeps the value of money in an IC card and can be circulated out of the bank payment system
virtual currency and electronic currency are not the same concept
the definition of e-money is to convert a certain amount of cash or deposit from the issuer and obtain data representing the same amount. By using some electronic methods, the data can be directly transferred to the payment object, so as to pay off the debt. E-money means that consumers pay traditional money to issuers of e-money, and issuers store legal money of equal value with traditional money in electronic devices held by consumers
electronic currency is the electronization of the legal tender, including our common bank cards, Internet banking, electronic cash, etc., as well as the third party payment developed in recent years, such as Alipay, fortune paid and so on. No matter what form these electronic currencies are and through which institutions they circulate, their original source is the legal money issued by the central bank
but virtual currency is the electronization of illegal currency, and its original issuer is not the central bank. For example, Tencent Q currency and other game currency, such virtual currency is mainly limited to circulation in a specific virtual environment. After the emergence of bitcoin, through the blockchain technology to better solve the problem of decentralization, distrust, to achieve global circulation, is sought after in the world. Electronic currency and virtual currency are collectively referred to as digital currency
There is no definition and distinction between game currency and stock, derivative financial instruments, especially electronic currency. In fact, there is an internal thread that can run through these different forms of virtual currency, which is the performance maturity of personalized value. We can summarize it logically as follows:
Bank e-money
Bank e-money was initially a kind of "pseudo virtual money". It only has the form of virtual currency, such as digitization and symbolization, but it does not have the essence of virtual currency and has nothing to do with personalization. For example, it is just the counterpart of paper money; It may be issued by the central bank; It may be in the same market as the money market. However, bank e-money has broken through the extension of money, that is, it can also be issued not by the central bank, but by information service providers, as was the case with several early e-money. The second breakthrough is the liquidity of bank e-money, which far exceeds that of ordinary money. Therefore, it implies a challenge to the pricing power of currency price level. For example, in overnight lending, if the same money is turned over several times in the form of electronic money, although from the traditional monetary point of view, nothing has happened, but from the perspective of virtual money circulation speed, it has actually changed the conditions of money price level
credit information currency
stock is the most typical credit information currency. Its essence is virtual and it is a kind of virtual currency with personalized characteristics. It is the most realistic foundation of the current virtual economy. Stock market and derivative financial instrument market constitute a large-scale and unified virtual money market. They are not only based on entity business, but also supported by a wide range of information services such as trust business and insurance business. The so-called unified market refers to that the market as a whole can be exchanged with the money market at the overall level of national income. Historically, only when money forms a unified market, that is, the main body of the national economy is monetized, can the adjustment of money quantity and interest rate on the national economy be discussed. The same is true for the virtual economy. This issue is not without dispute. Although the scale of the virtual economy is several times larger than that of the real economy, a large part of the real economy has not entered the unified market. If the game currency is compared with stocks, its progress in this respect is far from satisfactory. Only through the two stages of entertainment instrialization and instrial entertainment, it is possible to reach the level of unified market
analyzing the stock market and derivative financial instrument market, the biggest difference between the stock market and the general money market is that its circulation speed cannot be directly determined by the central bank. For example, as a virtual currency, the price level of stock index can not be directly determined by the central bank like the interest rate, but by the so-called "confidence" of people. The fundamentals of the central bank and the real capital market can only indirectly determine the stock market, not directly. So I think the stock market is an information market, not a money market
compared with the mature virtual money market, the main characteristics of the stock market are incomplete. The stock market integrates the noise at all reference points (i.e. indivial gain and loss values) into a unified reference value, which is combined with the standard value (utility value on the basis and general equilibrium value) to form the continuous fluctuation of the market around the utility value. Although it is different from the money market with the central bank as the center for orderly centripetal movement, it is not different from the money market. From the point of view of the real virtual money market, the characteristic of this market is the incommensurable personalized fixed value. In this sense, the centralized stock market has not achieved this function, and the independent role of the stock market as the so-called "casino" has not been played. Thirdly,
the fundamental function of personalized credit voucher
virtual currency is to synthesize value on the spot of personality, rather than to determine a rational value in isolation at an equilibrium point separated from the real world. The significance of virtual currency is to establish a value system centered on the final consumer. After the full realization of virtual currency, the single currency with general equivalent function will tend to be backward. Game currency is the experimental field of virtual currency at a higher stage, and it is difficult to be a major task. The ideal virtual currency is the value symbol of the real world. In the general equivalent exchange, the specific use value and the corresponding subject of the specific use value, namely the non-homogeneous needs and personalized needs of people, are completely filtered out. Virtual currency will change all this, through the virtual way, people's heterogeneous needs and personalized needs will be anchored to the fundamentals by indivial reference point, and the value will be synthesized. Therefore, virtual currency must have two sides, one is to have the function of commodity exchange, the other is to have the function of barter. Through the former to overcome the relativity and subjectivity of value, through the latter to achieve personalized value confirmation. In order to achieve this goal, virtual currency must realize a huge transformation, which is to transform to dialogue system and become interactive currency. The bargaining here is aimed at the level of currency price. Recall that the transformation from text to dialogue, which has been realized for decades, is the direction of the transformation of virtual currency. The value of game currency is uncertain. When people exchange game currency, it is uncertain whether the ultimate happiness they may get is above or below the currency value until they participate in the game. The game is a dialogue process. Of course, various value-added functions of game currency have not been developed in combination with personalized information services. If this kind of value-added business is fully developed, game currency will not be used because of the different businesses providing services, which may become an advantage over stocks
a fully personalized virtual currency may be a kind of currency card with additional information, and its value is to be confirmed. Virtual currency with specific undetermined function and resial value, on the one hand, its information can have room for reinterpretation like text, on the other hand, it has the potential of karaoke like redevelopment. Its information value has an open interface and can be added again. If they are exchanged in the secondary market like the stock market, they may float up and down in the basic par value with their personalized information, and they will have more attractiveness like stocks. Game currency only has the function of value circulation, but not the function of market platform, so it is only an imperfect virtual currency. The reason is the lack of corresponding instrial base
first, regulatory issues: virtual currency must be within the scope of effective supervision to ensure that it will be used in legal channels
Second, generation: virtual currency only generates Internet, which other people can't control and is not within the scope of effective supervision
Third, network security: network problems are the biggest problems of virtual currency, including network security, technical level, etc< Fourth, essence: virtual currency is essentially just a piece of computer code; Of course, it is only a proct of the development of social economy and network technology to a certain level
therefore, virtual currency can not replace paper money; It is similar to the stock, can be used as a natural investment channel, with a certain risk.
1. Whether e-money can be called currency depends on whether e-money can independently perform the function of currency. At present, electronic currency can play the role of payment and settlement, but it is only a quasi currency that may perform monetary functions. First of all, e-money lacks the price standard of money, so it can't measure and express the value and price of goods alone, and it can't have the means of value preservation. Instead, it can only rely on the function of value measurement and value storage of real money; Secondly, because electronic money is based on certain electronic devices - smart cards and computers, its circulation and use must have certain technical facilities and software support. Therefore, we can not really carry out the function of circulation means; Finally, although the most basic function of e-money is to implement the means of payment, most of the existing e-money can not be used for direct payment between indivials. Moreover, when paying to a special merchant, the merchant has to collect the real money from the bank or credit card company that issued the e-money before the payment is recovered, E-money can not perform the function of payment means independently. It can be seen that the current electronic currency is a new currency form or payment method based on the existing currency
2. Electronic money circulation and the risk of central bank losing seigniorage income
from the balance sheet of central bank, the main liability item is currency without interest payment, while the asset side is composed of various claims with interest requirements. As a result, the central bank can profit from the interest spread between assets and liabilities. This kind of profit is one of the main income channels of the central bank, which is commonly known as "seigniorage income"
3. The circulation of e-money and the risk of the central bank's monetary policy failure
when the competitive issuing mechanism of e-money is established, as e-money is widely used as a payment tool for small transactions, the currency issued by the central bank is obviously replaced, and the central bank's "seigniorage income" will be greatly reced, thus affecting its monetary policy independence. Especially for developing countries, because of the wide range of cash use, the management cost is high.