While cash is still king,
innovations are pushing central banks to think about how new Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) could complement or replace traditional money. Most central banks are still working to
understand the implications for their jurisdiction and a significant minority
representing a fifth of the world’s population look likely to issue a CBDC very
soon.
Money can be divided into four different properties:
(i) Issuer
(central bank or not)
(ii) Form (digital or physical)
(iii) Accessibility
(wide or narrow) and
(iv) Technology (peer-to-peer tokens, or accounts).
CBDCs are new variants of central bank money different from physical cash or central bank reserve/settlement accounts.
A CBDC is, by definition, central
bank-issued digital money. Different levels of accessibility demarcate two
broad types of CBDC: general purpose and wholesale.
As per the recent survey by BIS, 80%
of central banks are engaging in some sort of work (graph on left) with half
looking at both wholesale and general-purpose CBDCs (graph in the center). Some 40% of
central banks have progressed from conceptual research to experiments, or
proofs-of-concept; and another 10% have developed pilot projects (graph on the right).
Image - BIS Survey
We
at Nth exception have collated the white papers relating to CBDC proposals for
your understanding and research. These white papers were created
by respective founders, developers, and researchers to enhance understanding,
knowledge and awareness of their projects or proposals.
While reviewing each white paper keep in mind the publication
date and the significant improvements, and/or failures, and/or delays that are
likely to have occurred within the protocols, methodologies, and implementations
since the project began or date of publication.
We at Nth Exception collaborate with Banks and Financial Institutions to analyze, solutionize, and optimize cross border payments processes. To complement our services and product we have partnered with companies in the payments space to deliver best in class payment solutions delivered by our partners.
