Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
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Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#2My company’s suggested implementation made it to the second round of proposals. Unfortunately we are not involved any more.
There are some serious challenges that needs to be ironed out. Two that comes to mind is how to solve offline payments, the other one is how to live up to the requirement from the government that the currency needs to be liquid also during a crisis (what if electricity or telecom doesn’t work?)
The Riskbank have had a hard time steering towards the inflation goals. Cutting the commercial banks from that chain, and giving interest, for example, directly on the currency, would make The Rikabanks job a lot easier.
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#3> The pilot will run until February 2021 and will use block-chain technology, the Riksbank said.
Will it really?
Riksbanken can have a central server to resolve any double spends, which is only really a problem in a decentralized network. Once you have a singular authority you can just let them decide, and you'll have no need for an inefficient cryptocurrency.
> which is being developed by consulting firm Accenture
Accenture is quite famous for developing bullshit solutions for made-up problems, so I guess this is a good fit for them.
> The sharp decline in the use of cash and competition from alternative currencies, such as Facebook’s Libra, has also prompted central banks around the world to consider issuing their own electronic currencies.
This is poor reporting, as e-krona predates Facebook's Libra, which is still far from being launched. They probably mean the perceived competition from Bitcoin.
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#4This headline is goofy. Central banks have been using digital electronic currencies for decades. The difference is that now they want to include all Swedes in the electronic currency system, not just Swedish banks, as they have been for decades. (And the claim that this uses "blockchain technology" is just a lie; it's a centralized database. It's no more a blockchain than Git is.)
I think this is a terrible idea given both the current appallingly bad state of unintended vulnerabilities in computer security and the appalling intended security vulnerabilities inherent in centralized architectures like the one they're proposing.
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#5Nej takk sverige
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#6This headline is goofy. Central banks have been using digital electronic currencies for decades. The difference is that now they want to include all Swedes in the electronic currency system, not just Swedish banks, as they have been for decades. (And the claim that this uses "blockchain technology" is just a lie; it's a centralized database. It's no more a blockchain than Git is.) I think this is a terrible idea give…
Git is somewhat like a blockchain though
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#7> The pilot will run until February 2021 and will use block-chain technology, the Riksbank said. Will it really? Riksbanken can have a central server to resolve any double spends, which is only really a problem in a decentralized network. Once you have a singular authority you can just let them decide, and you'll have no need for an inefficient cryptocurrency. > which is being developed by consulting firm Accenture A…
It's buzzwords being thrown around again. Blockchain is highly inefficient for anything other than decentralized consensus.
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#8My company’s suggested implementation made it to the second round of proposals. Unfortunately we are not involved any more. There are some serious challenges that needs to be ironed out. Two that comes to mind is how to solve offline payments, the other one is how to live up to the requirement from the government that the currency needs to be liquid also during a crisis (what if electricity or telecom doesn’t work?)…
> My company’s suggested implementation made it to the second round of proposals.
If you don't mind me asking what company do you work for? I am actually studying computer science (security and privacy emphasis) at KTH in Sweden and I have been interested in CBDC for some time now. If your company offers master's theses I would love to connect on LinkedIn or via email.
> the other one is how to live up to the requirement from the government that the currency needs to be liquid also during a crisis (what if electricity or telecom doesn’t work?)
This is the first thing I thought of when reading the article. Since you seem to have some knowledge about the field, what are some proposed solutions to this problem?
The article mentioned something that I find particularly interesting:
> Sweden is the least cash-dependent country in the world, making it a litmus test for how central banks can react to people using less of the money they print.
To be honest I had my suspicions that this was the case. Anecdotally, I have lived in Sweden since August of 2018 and I cannot recall a single time where I have carried cash in my wallet or used cash for a transaction in Sweden. If I am not paying with a credit/debit card I usually just use Swish (similar to Venmo or Cash app for US readers, except it's operated by several Swedish banks and I believe the Swedish central bank).
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#9This effort betrays a supreme misunderstanding about what makes Bitcoin important.
"Blockchain technology" is not what makes Bitcoin revolutionary.
Bitcoin is censorship-resistant electronic cash. It's teleportable currency - without a deplatforming option.
That's the innovation.
What Sweden is engaging in is a cargo cult. Build the blockchain runway, hoping the planes will land. They won't because they have no reason to.
Censorship-resistant money is a direction no government will pursue voluntarily. The reason is simple: censorship of transactions will be demanded by a ruling class indent on "doing something" about drugs, terrorism, and rogue states. Some governments may be forced to follow the censorship-resistant direction by market forces, but that's probably far off from today.
Re: Sweden’s central bank says it has begun testing an e-krona
#10The blockchain technology that will be used in this pilot is apparently R3 Corda : https://www.corda.net/