Don't we already have digital currency? What's all the hype about CBDCs?

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• Talk about digital currencies is heating up after the ECB launched the investigation phase of its digital euro project. However, many are still asking how the tender would differ from the electronic money we use today via credit cards, online banking and popular payment app Venmo (NASDAQ:PYPL). Definitions first... While there are many descriptions of "digital currencies," they are broadly broken down into three categories.
• Decentralized cryptocurrency: These are unregulated offerings like Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Ripple (XRP-USD) and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD). Since they are issued by a network, and not any central authority or government, they are often volatile, but can also be exchanged for goods or services like traditional currencies. Cryptos often use distributed ledger technology (like blockchain) that can confirm valid tokens and log transactions.
• Stablecoins: These also use distributed ledger technology, but they attach the value of tokens to something that already exists. By pegging the asset to the dollar, a basket of currencies, or commodities like gold, these currencies are more grounded and reduce volatility. The most famous example of this is Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) Libra project, now known as Diem, which recently relocated its main operations from Switzerland to the U.S. as it scaled back its global ambitions.
• Central bank digital currency: Otherwise known as CBDCs, these tokens represent a nation's fiat currency. They are a way for central banks to have a voice in the emerging industry as more "digital money" comes into the economy. Some central banks are looking to get some skin in the game by issuing CBDCs, while some are more concerned about the threat of stablecoins and decentralized finance.
• How do CBDCs differ from electronic cash? When you deposit money into a bank account, the commercial entity takes responsibility for the sum. The cash is then held in electronic form and can be used across a variety of platforms, but it's limited to the bank's ledger. Companies like Venmo can even track electronic transactions on its own internal ledger system, but the money is still being held and tracked by a commercial bank provider. In the case of CBDCs, the government is the counterparty and takes liability for the money, while the ledger that's being used (known as the rails) can be a very different structure than a commercial institution.
• Meet the rails: In the U.S., the ACH Network is the national automated clearing house (ACH) for electronic funds transfers. It typically takes three days to clear a transaction as it travels along the payment highway infrastructure. There are also wire transfers and credit card payments that are handled by separate networks. In creating a CBDC, the Fed would develop a new set of rails that could allow money to move faster, meaning rapid transfers for things like unemployment benefits and stimulus checks.
• Outlook: Besides being quicker, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the rails would be cheaper and safer. While the central bank would want to maintain competition with its new offering, it would also seek to operate its innovations in tandem with cash and other forms of payment. There are additional privacy concerns that would have to be addressed, like the ability for a central bank to monitor every transaction that is using CBDCs in real-time.
• Cracking down on Alipay (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY), China is speeding up its CBDC currency trials as it moves to digital renminbi.
• Related: MA, V, AXP, SQ, COIN, FIS, ADP, FISV, GPN, PAYX, GDOT, MELI, JPM, GS, BAC, COF

Comments

[Philipsonh]

My ACH transfers hit my account the NEXT business day.

[Kyoka Suigetsu]

CBDC? Once again another way for the governments and bloody bankers to get a hand on our money and control us. I'm afraid not everyone is aware of that around me.

[User 48535522]

Just remember -- with CBDCs, you have zero privacy. That's what all national governments want.

[EBIX EBUCKS]

Well, at least most of the people commenting seem to be well aware of why this would be a terrible idea.

[stuartsegan]

To ask the question per the headline merely suggests a lack of understanding for the term "currency." As the article does get correct, strictly speaking, currency involves sovereign entities.

[jimbo162]

@stuartsegan bingo...it isn't really currency or money, it is software. Rather brilliant software or code that works like money.

[User 3434471]

@stuartsegan the primary difference being that only sovereign entities are allowed to treat their "currency" like a ponzi scheme without going to jail

[Patrick O'Hara]

@stuartsegan I thought it was a fair question as I understood the author was referring to electronic debits, credits, and transfers like Zelle and ATM purchases. These platforms for moving real dollars to me is a form of digital currency (its value backed by the government dollar for dollar plus FDIC insurance if landing at a bank) - it just has slower settlement and is layered with profits for intermediaries in the form of float. It would be interesting to know how CBDCs run through the government ledger will impact bank profits.

[katmandu100]

Good article.

[naples]

It's comical... Where can u used cryptos to buy goods n services...the data is out there...in northsnan traders interview w saylor he went thru the numbers...very little use as a currency

[jimbo162]

@naples any merchant that accepts credit cards now accepts bitcoin thanks to Square, and paypal just announced today increasing weekly limits to $100,000 in bitcoin...who needs it right...it's not actually a currency but a means of exchange. Why did you think the banks all need and wanted their own?
www.nasdaq.com/...

[naples]

@jimbo162 good luck with doing the tax paperwork on depreciating asset...r they helping u with that...or u just forget paying capital gains...I could do the same selling my massive stock gains too but at least the paperwork is easy. GL buddy when digital yuan comes out

[jimbo162]

@naples yeah right let me sink all my money in Chinese funds. The gov't there loves to depreciate it's currency, even US politicians accuse them of currency manipulation. Good pitch, good advise for sure...not. As far as a depreciating asset you need to look beyond a month or two. BTC is the top return asset of the last decade.

[dkm3sa]

So does that mean I can open an account at the Fed and have free (sorry 0.5% interest) ether-coins deposited whenever I need it like the banks, or do I still have to pay like 18% interest on my credit cards? Is the Fed doing this for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and we the people or for its own ilk?

[foshobro]

@dkm3sa this comment is so under rated.

[nvg]

Green fascism is spreading

[LittleMilk]

Don’t care. I don’t buy or hold currency… I buy cash generating assets with currency. Regardless if it goes digital or not, I buy cash generating assets.

[J D R]

CBDCs will be the check-mate of central banks in total power over you.
Nobody will be able to own any money, but the central banks.
Every single transaction is going to be monitored.
If stimulus is needed they will enforce negative rates on you.
If you have unwanted political views, they will seize your assets and lock you out of the system.

Their power will be tyrannical and absolute.
We are deer staring into the headlights of the ugliest thing since the Bolshevik revolution, maybe ever.

Buy gold, silver and bitcoin.
I urge everyone to pick up this fight. We might not get another chance later.

[jimbo162]

@UUII but gov't can and has confiscated gold. What would stop them from doing it again? Or taking away my bitcoin?

[J D R]

@jimbo162 They can, but it would mean a level of escalation, that would cause turmoil in the population I think. They want to sneak this in and draw as little attention as possible. If people knew what is coming, they would revolt today.

[Chillybear]

@UUII that scenario “could” happen. It also “might not”.

[WNB]

cbdc is how they will F everyone.

[HardRightEdge]

"Besides being quicker, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the rails would be cheaper and safer."

That's a buried lede and as far as it goes if they can accomplish it.

It's not like drug dealers, extortion hackers, tax dodgers, Chinese capital expatriaters, et. al., are going to abandon cryptos, the best thing for them that ever happened in terms of handling their finances.

It might help in a corporate accounting forensic investigation if a company engaged in malfeasance was foolish enough to use it.

[vslingam]

CBDC is just digital fiat currency unlike bitcoin. First they are based on blockchain technology and two they are global. Bitcoin in US is the same bitcoin in Euro. Can't say that for CBDC.

[SqueakyToy]

CBDCs are far more likely to be on the hashgraph than on a blockchain.

[jimbo162]

@SqueakyToy but the blockchain is what makes them traceable.

[Diego Montalbon, raconteur]

"Don't we already have digital currency? What's all the hype about CBDCs?"

Now now, that's not nice;
what will the sell-side and talking heads blabber on about if not CeFi/DeFi ?

[Am-Eric-A]

It's all about control. If they don't like what you buy, how you vote, or what you post on social media they can pretty much shut down your entire life. They hate Bitcoin because it removes a layer of their iron fisted control. That is exactly why China hates it. The population that you can't starve to death is a lot harder to control than one that knows you can start them anytime you want.

[Jon Brien]

Digital currency is unregulated and non-transparent. It appears to me the fed and the treasury have really found a home.

[PianoCat]

What if I lost the private key for my digital USD/EUR?

With such a possible catastrophe, there’s absolutely no reason I would put a significant amount of money in digital USD vs the traditional bank/brokerage.

[jimbo162]

@PianoCat when digital money from the CBDC's becomes a reality you won't have other choices. I would say take it or leave it but then most other countries will only offer the same, it is already in place in the Bahamas.

[DomL]

Central Bank Coin would be nice. Buy/sell crypto at 4 am then transfer your money by 8 am to brokerage to trade stocks during the day lol