Exploring some of the detailed design factors and decisions that need to be made in the design and implementation of central bank driven digital currencies and how these decisions will impact money, payments and economies.
1 Sep 2022 2 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
In many countries, establishing a central banking authority is accompanied by certain guidelines or restrictions on that authority that are meant to keep its role in the financial ecosystem clearly defined. This has been embodied as rules that restr...
5 Aug 2021 2 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
While dozens of countries see a marked reduction in the use of physical currency as a means of payment, the continued need for a physical currency is not disappearing from economies any time soon. There continue to be valid micro-transaction use case...
30 Apr 2021 5 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
I often get asked whether Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will bring banking to the unbanked. A CBDC is a solution for some but not all problems, and like many other systems, it may create more problems than it solves. The banked vs unbanke...
24 Mar 2021 4 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
One of the most significant opportunities in deploying a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for a national economy is the degree of disintermediation that can be contemplated in the design. A CBDC, depending on the design, can create or abolish as...
12 Feb 2021 6 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
There are two things at odds in developing a secure, immutable ledger of transactions for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). You want the immutability and security of decentralized cryptocurrencies, but you also want the centralized control of...
2 Feb 2021 3 minute read 4 comments Craig Borysowich
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) rely on a completely digital representation of value that people can exchange for goods and services. It would be challenging to deliver a completely digital currency solution without a tightly integrated digi...
1 Jan 2021 3 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
As countries look to rollout a CBDC for general retail use, there are various issues related to the representation, portability and verifiability of value in connected and disconnected environments that create challenges for many payment use cases....
1 Dec 2020 3 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
Efficiency and speed in the processing of payments come from the availability and verifiability of payment data while that payment is in flight. In short, the transaction has the details of the sender and the receiver of the money, the amount of the...
25 Nov 2020 3 minute read 1 comment Craig Borysowich
At the end of the day money is money, but with that said, there is are some very different contexts of money that become important in the implementation of a CBDC. Simply delineating between wholesale money or retail money and public versus private...
15 Oct 2020 5 minute read 0 comments Craig Borysowich
At a very high level, one of the basic design concepts for a CBDC is the decision to design a purely token-based solution or should the central bank take on a broader mandate to offer an account-based solution that would support digital currency toke...
