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Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

bankofengland.co.uk

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Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#191

Post by danialtz »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #163

A bunch of comments in this thread claim that the pound is already digital, because you can send and receive pounds using a mobile app or online banking. But these transactions simply transfer obligations (debts) denominated in pounds between parties. They are not operations on actual pounds (i.e. on the central bank currency). You can trade 'pork bellies futures' quickly, and using nothing but a computer. But no one…

You have a point here, but sadly most of the current state of art in CBDC research avoids storing accounts at Central Banks due to the obvious risk of disintermediating banking system.

The points of others thread stays: what is the point of CBDC for individuals if the supply is not limited and not stored at Central banks...

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#192

Post by danialtz »

anm89 wrote: post #189
BayesianDice wrote: post #146

There's lots of speculation here on what the Bank of England means by a central bank digital currency (CBDC) - people may be interested in the more concrete indications of what the Bank is / has been considering in a discussion paper which they published in March 2020: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/paper/2020... The chapter on Technology Design states "Although CBDC is often associated with Distri…

This is a key point. CBDCs have no intrinsic overlap with blockchain or crypto currencies. You could use a blockchain as part or all of the strategy for storing the data of your currency but you could do it without using these concepts at all. The more likely scenario here is that blockchains will not be used here. People should not confuse CBDCs with crypto. They are unrelated concepts.

Amen.

One does need a decentralized ledger for CBDC, high performance databases are quite acceptable, as there is no problem of lack of trust in a permissined model (no systematic bad actor). If you listen to Moser (and Chaum) video, he even states somewhere the unnecessity of DLTs for retail CBDCs.

There are still some benefits but not worth to bet against the blockchain trilemma in these early stages.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#193

Post by swiley »

KaiserPro wrote: post #30

I've not really understood the need for a "digital" pound, the pound is pretty digital already. I can already have an entirely digital bank account from at least three "challenger" banks. There are also now at least two business accounts that also entirely virtual. "Faster Payments" (customer bank transfers) are delivered in seconds. I can see a need for speeding up BACS, and reducing the price of CHAPS, but apart fr…

Can I have that? I'm not a briton (perhaps I'm even from a country you're at war with.)

This is why digital replacements for cash hasn't (and likely won't) succeed.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#194

Post by fab1an »

pharmakom wrote: post #190
treespace88 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine this could lead to interesting changes in how people are taxed. IE taxes based on savings instead of income.

Digital currency makes negative interest rates possible, which is either exciting or terrifying depending on your view.

I fear there is a curious feedback loop on the horizon, where stuff like this accelerates flight into decentralized crypto which then again accelerates further regulatory scrutinity, including bans.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#195

Post by matheusmoreira »

yur3i__ wrote: post #20

If this provides a solution for anonymised digital cash payments such that something like paypal or a bank transfer isn't necessary then i'm all for it.

It's a central bank currecy issued by a nation state. It's unlikely that anonymity will be a feature.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#196

Post by matheusmoreira »

Nursie wrote: post #180
casi18 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think HN repeatedly underestimates the overlap of these communities. FOSS ideology is critical in pretty much all crypto/defi projects.I can probably pick any dev in the space and they'll most likely be running linux. HN refuses to change its collective position it settled on a decade ago. It seems people here got stuck on some abstract projections of "crypto-capitalism-cruelty" and refuse to admit there might be s…

The problem with that is that there doesn’t seem to be anything interesting going on, beyond speculative hyper-capitalism. All the problems crypto was going to solve were illusory, or crypto was not a useful tool in solving them. Instead we’ve had years and years of hype and bubbles and solution-looking-for-a-problem but nothing much of any practical value. “Move fast and break things” now has a bad rap too in much o…

Monero is very close to the original cryptocurrency dream. Private, anonymous, fast transactions, low fees, mineable by CPUs, can be and actually is used as a currency.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#198

Post by enos_feedler »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #52
veritascap wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason for a CBDC are new features. Money that can be programmed to only be used in certain ways, with certain groups, or at certain times, e.g. expiring money. It’s more nudging power for our unelected technocrat dear leaders. Imagine the possibilities!

So, less functional money? More complicated gift card?

If the reason the government doesn't want to spend money on it's people is because they fear the money will be spent on the wrong things (outside the scope of what they are trying to fix) then making money less functional is actually more functional.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#199

Post by Trias11 »

KaiserPro wrote: post #30

I've not really understood the need for a "digital" pound, the pound is pretty digital already. I can already have an entirely digital bank account from at least three "challenger" banks. There are also now at least two business accounts that also entirely virtual. "Faster Payments" (customer bank transfers) are delivered in seconds. I can see a need for speeding up BACS, and reducing the price of CHAPS, but apart fr…

Absolutely.

Switching into their own digital currency (or watever technology) government picks doesn't automatically make them and their fiscal policy more trustworthy among businesses, investors or citizens.

They can't hide abusive tax policies, irresponsible spending and desire to control their citizens wealth and financial lives behind their "digital" version of fiat.

Re: Bank of England to explore a potential Central Bank Digital Currency

#200

Post by mywittyname »

pharmakom wrote: post #190
treespace88 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine this could lead to interesting changes in how people are taxed. IE taxes based on savings instead of income.

Digital currency makes negative interest rates possible, which is either exciting or terrifying depending on your view.

This is possible now, since there's a practical limit on how much business can be conducted in all cash.

Even if every bank account in the country started charging an account fee to cover negative interest rates, people would continue to use banks because they are just so damn convenient.

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