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In times where social distancing is a must, the way we make payments changes in its entirety. Physical cash will cease from existence, as they serve as "carriers" or "vehicles" of the deadly coronavirus "COVID-19". Governments will notice that printing more money will not be worth their time, leading them towards the creation of their very own digital currency. That is if the pandemic continues extends long enough in order to have a negative impact on the world's economy.

Considering that everything has been moving to the "online world" lately, I believe that the coronavirus pandemic will pave the way for CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) quicker than we've expected. After all, it'll be much safer to conduct transactions online (and eco-friendly too) than doing so in the physical realm. Crypto will rise like never before because of this, leading towards the accelerated development of CBDCs.

While many countries like the US and Russia are skeptical about crypto/Blockchain technology, they might change their stance once they see it's no longer worth printing physical cash. China has already been working on a CBDC solution of its own, so it's only a matter of time before it starts rolling it to the public.

What are your thoughts? Will this be the era of CBDCs? Or is it still too early to tell? ???

What is happening right now is certainly an additional support in favor of developing a digital currency. The argument for CBDCs is made a little stronger due to this. While a pandemic as large as this does not happen often, it is always prudent to be at least taking the safer path. With the population explosion that we have been facing, a fiat bill or coin shifts hands countless of times in a single day. And if it is indeed true that unseen virus and bacteria could survive in it for a few hours, that is enough to wreak havoc on an entire village or even a country. And, after all, we are now on the threshold of a digital age.

Right. Central banks may see highly infectious disease and epidemics as a justification towards their creation of digital currencies. Then again, it needs a lot more than that, and the public really needs more convincing for them to accept this novel idea of replacing physical cash with online ones. Perhaps after the older population is gone, they will have to push even harder for this to become a reality, but for the time being I don't think there is any solid reason to hasten the formation of CBDCs.

For the first time on such a scale, states are now taking measures to disinfect paper money in connection with the spread of coronavirus, and they themselves are urging people to use it less and switch to non-cash forms of payment. It is unlikely that the coronavirus pandemic will last too long, but the current situation will certainly contribute to the further crowding out of paper money and the issuance of nationally stable state coins. Figures have already appeared that about 70 percent of all states are working on the creation of their digital currencies of central banks. Many states have already noted the positive role of digital currencies compared to paper money, because every few years paper money must be replaced with new ones, and this is a very costly process. However, people, and even states, are not yet ready to completely switch to non-cash forms of payments.

you're probably right, the pandemic will accelerate things. south korea is burning cash as a public health measure, and the USA government is obviously embracing the idea of digital currency too. i'm not sure all these systems will incorporate blockchains though. they may just use trusted databases.

the stimulus bill they just passed in the USA actually included a provision creating the "digital dollar"---a central bank issued digital currency. they were planning on using it to pay out stimulus money, but it was stripped from the bill at the last minute. they are paying out stimulus funds via the IRS tax return system instead. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/59692/digital-dollar-proposal-stripped-from-latest-house-democrat-coronavirus-stimulus-bill

Right, as @figmentofmyass has said, US is moving towards a digital dollar to combat this pandemic.

So probably we will see countries moving in this direction, China will accelerate and possible that other EU nations as well. I'm still a bit skeptical about Russia though, we all know that they want to put everything under their control. Although issuing digital + <insert local fiat here> might be also be used as surveillance measures to track everyone.

It is now clear that digital currency has a place in the history of humanity because of what we are seeing now. I guess the world is now waiting for the pandemic to be over before real focus on bitcoin starts properly.

Well, this is too early for the development of CBDC because the government cannot do that in a short time, maybe developing countries in technology will recognize CBDC, how about other countries will require a long process and I think this pandemic will not be as long as there is, so real money will to become an irreplaceable medium of exchange that is irreplaceable.
As the epidemic continues to spread and increase some people do not make contact transactions, but that is only partly so what about the small people if they will be able to with it? I do not think so.
When this social distance is what they use is the best thing maybe online transactions will be safer than having to contact but after the situation recovers it will be normal when real money will be used a lot.
CBDC is only a few central banks that are available.

They've already approved a bill to it, so i think this is currently underway and will be fully useable in just a few months, although im harding difficulty understanding what is USDT for ? or is that their Digital dollar ?

About dollars being digitalized, If they go live it would really cause them some issues including hacking and identity theft. So people, will probably switch to better unmonetized payments.

I have the same thought and conviction that central banks will develop their own digital coins, this impact of this pandemic is just too massive and humbling. It's even more expensive to manage fiat than managing digital coins. The fiat has a whole lot of bottle necks to deal with.

You have solid points but we don't know for sure because in this situation people need cash more than anything so people are selling their asset and crypto was unstable as well even though now it's stable but we never know when it's become unstable again and who wants unstable crypto right? but I think major currency like USDT and other coins will be stable but since the government can"t trace crypto they are chance that government won"t get much tax which why they are approving crypto and crypto is one of way people are laundering their money. so you can see there are many reasons why crypto won't get CBDC but let's stay positive.

Of course, it will change concepts and may speed up the issuance of digital currencies, but it will not finish using cash or paper money.
the acceptance of new technology will not be fast, and therefore the alternative will be to rely heavily on bank cards, something that actually happened during the Corona crisis in South Korea and China^[1].

Do not forget that the transition to "online world" does not necessarily mean the use of digital currencies^[2], just as digital currencies do not mean that we may witness an increase in the demand for cryptocurrencies.

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/07/tech/mobile-payments-coronavirus/index.html
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/16/electronic-payments-look-more-appealing-as-coronavirus-spreads.html

Digital payments aren't perfectly sterile either - people touch their phones, then touch their faces and get infected easily. And cash isn't as infectious as people might think, WHO and other experts never claimed that it's a major vector for spreading this or any other disease. I believe the governments understand it and aren't likely to take any additional measures like speeding up the development of digital currency. This isn't something you want to rush, it needs to be well-tested and polished, and I think at this stage those currencies are merely proposals.

It would still pass on lots of debates and consideration before this plan would come true.Yeah, fiat now is considered to be one of the gateways of virus transmission but it doesnt mean that this would be enough
for government to switch up to digital payments in a blink of an eye.

There might be talks but it would still takes time and as said it would need to be polished first before switching into a whole new system.

I think it's going to be a couple more decades before we reach the abolition of cash.  There are still enough elderly people who are complete technophobes.  Some of them still want to pay for things by cheque.  People like that simply wouldn't cope.

I think it's way too early to be predicting the end of cash based on a single viral outbreak that so far hasn't proven to be extremely fatal.  Serious, yes, but there's no way to be completely risk-free as far as contracting an infection goes.  Physical cash has always carried the risk of being a fomite, if not for COVID-19 then other viruses that can certainly make you really sick.

So if cash were to be eliminated, people would still be touching keypads on credit card readers, doorknobs, and everything else.  I don't know, I'd hate to see this situation used as an excuse to do away with physical cash, because it's still the most anonymous form of money we have--and I don't think there's a compelling reason to.

From some of the explanations above, the point is that because physical money has the potential to become a coronavirus carrier, there is no alternative (TINA) besides adopting CBDC. At this time, cryptocurrency players should join this momentum to educate about cryptocurrency as an alternative payment media other than digital currency to be issued by the central bank.

Very likely to happen in the next two years, if things continue the way they are.

Consider also that they have been able to put tracking chips inside pills, which could store all the data from the person who took the pill. In this way, the centralized cryptocurrency could be authenticated through the signal from the chip, with a 5G smartphone acting as intermediary.

5G cover a wide range of frequencies, and above 20gHz it can pass through the pores of the skin (a process called "electroporation"), thus making a bridge between the 5G smartphone and the chip inside the body. The chip would confirm who is doing the transaction with the smartphone. If its the right person, then the transaction is confirmed, without the need of a miner.

Needless to say, these centralized cryptocurrencies will be PoS, not PoW, so governments would be able to manipulate the supply as they seem fit.

I guess it is. Those countries that are treating crypto as illegal might change their stance now.
But CBDCs will take time to have really good progress in actual implementation.
But yes, this situation may pave the way for them to proceed.

Exactly. I don't see any other way but for governments to start issuing digital currencies for everyone's benefit. This can save costs, and reduce risks associated with carrying physical cash (germs, bacteria, not eco-friendly). The recent outbreak will greatly contribute towards the development of government-backed digital currencies as we speak. Already, the US has proposed a bill for a "digital dollar". On the other hand, China has been working extensively on launching a "digital yuan" of its own. As people become more interconnected in the digital realm as a result of social distancing from the virus, there will be an increase in the use of digital services worldwide.

The benefits of CBDCs relative to printing cash are numerous. The risk factor of transmitting germs or bacteria from hand to hand will be eliminated, as everything shifts to the digital realm. If governments want to "print" more money, they can do so virtually by increasing the digital currency's inflation rate or total supply. Banks worldwide will act as nodes or validators of the country's underlying Blockchain network. People will still trust CBDCs because they'll be backed by the full faith and credit of the government (just like it's the case with physical cash today). If the pandemic lasts for a long time, you could expect CBDCs to become a reality sooner than you've ever imagined. :)




It's odd that the US "passed away" from creating a digital dollar when other countries have already started working on digital currencies of their own. We all know that the US doesn't want to be left behind in technological innovation. Maybe the government is waiting for another country to officially launch its digital currency in order to begin development of a digital dollar?

Anyhow, I believe this pandemic will trigger massive development of CBDCs within the mainstream world. It'll be unsafe or unsanitary to use physical cash, leaving governments with no choice but to create digital currencies of their own. At least, the bill proposed by the US for creating a digital dollar is still there. If the pandemic lasts for long, you could expect the government to make the right decision by approving the creation of the digital dollar. This brings many benefits that are hard to ignore. For instance, bank transfers would settle instantly (instead of taking days) and fees would become cheaper like never before.

We'll have to wait and see what happens to the development of the COVID-19 outbreak in the upcoming days. ;)

I think, OP, that your hypothesis is correct. While I personally still saw no media attention to that possible tendency, it's certainly right that the research on CBDCs could get a boost after the COVID-19 crisis.

In the case of COVID-19, as others like hatshepsut93 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235975.msg54113028#msg54113028) have written, an infection by viruses pegged to surfaces (like cash) is highly unlikely. A recent study in the (strongly affected) German Heinsberg region (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8182767/Scientist-casts-doubt-coronavirus-spread.html) confirms that not even in houses of families whose members were infected by SARS-CoV2 it was possible to cultivate virus from surfaces like door knobs or toilet seats.

However, the act of payment when using cash or a "traditional" credit/debit card involves more physical contact and more proximity than a "contactless" payment (e.g. by NFC technology) and thus it greatly can reduce the risk of infection in that moment. Also, there are other potentially deadly viruses where a transmission on surfaces is possible. So I think the COVID-19 crisis will probably influence the discussion about CBDCs. And this can also be a chance for cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin.

The Banque de France is quietly testing a CBDC on behalf of the European Central Bank. They published this "call for applications" last week: https://www.banque-france.fr/sites/default/files/media/2020/03/27/200327-call-for-applications.pdf


Not sure if this was catalyzed by COVID-19 per se since they were vaguely talking about digital currencies a few months ago already, but it may have accelerated things.

Yes. This pandemic virus has become an eye opener that fiat currency is no longer good enough in this current time since it causes the fast transmission of virus. Government should think on  switching into digital currencies for the safety of all the people but i guess this will not happen in just a blink of an eye. It will take time and will pass more debates and public discussions before it will be legally implemented.

Developed countries that can support this will be able to start their project and I think it will take years before we will be able to do this. I just hope I will be able to catch this change while I am alive. Though it will not be expensive to the one managing it, how about the users of it, the people that will be using the digital currency or coins. Not all of the people here are well-versed when it comes to technology.

Cryptocurrency is the future. There's no doubt about it. Once the government sees the advantage of cryptocurrency, they will adopt and surely more will follow. I am very sure one day or so it will surely be regulated in whole world.

Even though the chances are right for CBCD, I think it is still not the time for it because, the whole world is more busy fighting the virus and is focus more on the welfare of their soverign so they could give proper support for their people. CBCD still needs time to be realized because, not all are ready and capable for this new move towards the future, every country still needs to study more about the platform, so they will know how to implement it properly, and we have more important lives at stake here.

"Everyone" has to mean everyone, though.  I have elderly relatives who can't even cope with on-demand TV.  They need a little paper magazine to tell them what time the TV shows they like are on.  It's all they've ever known.  We got them an on-demand box where you just select the show you want from the menu.  They returned it back to the shop for a refund.  Couldn't use it.

Tell me how they're going to adapt to digital money if they can't even work a modern television remote control. 

The topic is about CBDCs, not cryptocurrencies, there are differences between both


Via the debit card.

There isn't really a lot to 'adapt', if you have $1 in your pocket or your bank account, NFC card, it's still $1.

When they invented the debit card they didn't care about people who won't know how to use it (senior people, etc) and they still don't.
20-30 years later it's one of the most used payment methods. You don't need to know how to write or read to use NFC card

If they barely leave the house and aren't able to do online banking, what use is a debit card to them?  As an example, the neighbour picks up their shopping for them and drops it off to the house, the elderly relative then hands them cash for it (or will give them the cash once lockdown is lifted, anyway).  

Is the neighbour going to buy a card reader?  
Do we give the neighbour my elderly relative's card and trust they don't choose to steal money from the account?
Are we going to try and teach someone in their 80s how to use a computer for the first time in their life to order shopping online?

They need cash because they can't comprehend anything else.

Personally I use practical reasoning to build my prognoses.

So far it seems that the crypto in general is becoming more practical as it doesn't require you going in the banks and allows contact free transactions.
I believe that the main cryptos (especially BTC) will significantly grow in price in the next 0.5 year

The benefits of CBDCs far outweigh the risks of physical cash. This will indeed take some time to implement, since it's not easy enough to devise a Blockchain network from scratch. Governments can either go this route or simply use an existent blockchain ledger for launching digital currencies of their own. It looks likely that they'll choose the first option so they're able to manipulate the ledger at will. The development and introduction of CBDCs will depend on how long COVID-19 lasts within the mainstream world. The longer it takes, the faster we'll be able to see CBDCs being adopted by governments worldwide. I know that old people will find it hard to adopt this new form of money, but it's the way of the future. Either they'll adapt to the new banking system or be left behind.

With countries like the US, France, and even China exploring ways on how to adopt a CBDC, the new economy should begin real soon. Before you know it, physical cash will be a thing of the past making digital payments the new norm of world commerce. Even physical credit/debit cards will cease from existence, as everything will be done via a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Both crypto and CBDCs will live alongside each other for many years to come. Just my thoughts ;D

I don't know if it will exactly be a CBDC. I think many companies utilize debit and credit cards right now for online and in-person transactions. This also helps limit the spread if people are not touching a lot of things while doing these transactions. I don't see a world-leading country putting out a CBDC because many citizens wouldn't know how to use it.

Most of these CBDC schemes aren't aimed at removing cash from circulation, at least early on. I think there is a general understanding that banning cash would be discriminatory towards the elderly.

Unfortunately, that argument won't hold up forever. I'm sure the plan is to eventually go cashless.

I figured as much.  Definitely going to try to drag it out as long as possible, though.  I use cash over card wherever I can, but I'm already starting to see cashless bars at music venues.  It has already begun.    :-\

Of course, I think that Crypto will have more use due to the quarantine caused by Coronavirus, and in the future, the world rulers will give it an important position. I have read that China plans to create a CBDC but not speculative like BTCitcoin, nor stable coins.
If any country, either China or another, successfully launches its CBDC. There will be other governments who want to follow the model or improve it.

As this virus is still constantly spreading around the world, it is more likely that digital currency will become more popular and noticeable by the society. Some people tend to use credit card or e-wallet to pay for their balance or transactions so there is a possibility that mass adoption of bitcoin will strengthen the probability of CBDCs to become more popular. But in some context, there's some features of digital money that is not enough to replace physical money in our society. Some importance of fiat currency is that it is the currency that the people used for so many years and digital currency nowadays can easily hacked because of our technology that is constantly advancing from time to time. For the mean time, we just need to focus on how this cryptocurrency will develop mass adoption during this kind of pandemic.

China actually postponed it because of covid-19. No matter what happened and will happen almost every country will have their own cryptocurrency. Mostly countries that are not allowed ( Euro countries) will have none.

CBD's will get more popular as states begin to lift restrictions on them but I'm not sure what COVID-19 has to do with it. If anything, coronavirus will slow down it's legalization with the fact that everyone doesn't care about drug legalization at the moment.

I guess the times are passing and I am very very sorry to say this because it will sound horrible but so will the elderly people as well. People who are on their 60's right now lived at a time when computers have been a very important part of our world during their 20's and 30's so they did get a bit better at it than their elders, anyone who are younger (under 60 year old) have been around literally during the technological boom.

So, when you talk about some new invention like bitcoin to get at the hands of everyone, you do not have to think about just 20 year old people, if needed I am sure everyone up to 50 years old could adapt quite very easily and the rest will either adapt with time or eventually no longer be with us. Sure, it will take couple decades at least but it could potentially happen.

As long as there are old people using physical cash, the idea of a CBDC will take longer than usual to become adopted by everyone in the mainstream world. Governments would need to slowly introduce the new payment system to the world, while phasing out physical cash from existence. A great level of education is needed for people to understand how to perform digital payments more thoroughly. While credit/debit cards have existed for a very long time, they aren't as efficient as a digital currency is. With a CBDC, governments can cut costs and increase efficiency with the power of Blockchain technology. Central banks are slowly beginning to realize that it is no longer worth printing physical cash for circulation. After all, physical cash is harmful to the environment in every way. Not to mention, they serve as carriers of germs and bacteria increasing the risk of contagion from the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing entirely on digital payments seems to be the way of the future.

I believe that COVID-19 will accelerate the development of national digital currencies as we speak. Remember, Bitcoin was created in a situation where there was a global financial crisis in 2008. We're now getting closer each day to those events, so I'd expect governments to start rolling out their own CBDCs real soon. Just my thoughts ;D

As far as I know, Sweden is a country where 98% of all transactions are already done without cash, so I don't think it would be difficult to map this model to other European countries. I don't see that it would be difficult to implement a full cashless payment, just give all people cards and replace all cash with digital version of fiat. It may not be as simple as it may seem at first glance, but it all depends on how much the banks will be interested to move in that direction.


The truth is that printing money requires a large amount of resources, there is certainly room for savings. There is also the question of counterfeiting money, will CBDC solve this problem as well as completely leaving in the past the possibility of physical robbery? Or hackers will find ways to steal digital money from people in a same way they are doing today with BTC and altcoins?

Interesting fact. Sweden could be one of the first countries to adopt a CBDC within the mainstream world. That's largely because people are accustomed in paying digitally than using physical cash for their purchases. As countries begin to develop their own CBDCs, it'll only be a matter of time before everyone in the world starts conducting payments digitally without the need for physical cash. The first country to launch a CBDC, will be the one leading the world's economy in my own opinion. I think that China was the first country to announce a CBDC, so this should encourage the US to launch its own digital dollar in the least time possible. After all, the US wouldn't want its internal Fiat currency (USD) to lose its position as the reserve currency of the world.

With the transition of physical cash to a CBDC, physical credit/debit cards might as well cease to exist in the future. Contactless payments will be the norm where everyone can pay using their computer or mobile device without the need to interact physically with a cashier. In the online world, you can use digital Fiat directly without the need for a credit/debit card. We still don't know if governments will be using Blockchain technology for their own CBDCs. But looking at how successful Bitcoin has been over time, it looks very likely that its core technology will be used for the world's monetary system sometime in the future. :)



The risks of hacks and theft will always be there no matter how secure a Blockchain network is against external attacks. For what I know, nothing is perfect. In all the years Bitcoin has been used as a currency for daily payments, it hasn't experienced a single hack that would disrupt its entire network. Maybe governments' own Blockchain networks will have a massive hashrate and nodes worldwide to protect against a 51% attack? As long as they have some sort of "fail-safe mechanism", nothing should go wrong. It's time to change to a new monetary system for the 21st century. Physical cash and credit/debit cards will be no more as we shift into the digital realm. Not everyone will find it easy to switch into completely digital payments, but they will as governments slowly introduce their CBDCs to the public. Just my thoughts ;D

I don't think that COVID-19 will speed up the transition from cash to national digital currencies in any way. After all, even now there is a parallel with cash - their non-cash form. And recently, more and more payments are made using credit cards, in addition, Visa and Mastercard also support noncontact technology.

When we consider their level of development, not only the economic, but also the sense of how their thinking is shaped, they are very likely to be the first country to become a cashless society. A truly special country, even when almost all the world is quarantined, they keep schools open, restaurants and cafes are packed with people, and they send a message to the world not to put people over 80 on the respirators (which shows that they do not experience death in the same way as the others).


I remember reading a few months ago that there is a service in China that allows you to connect your bank account with your face, and only pay by face scan. Imagine not having to carry your wallet, mobile phone or card, remember your PIN, and that all you need is your smile? Well it's not SF anymore, it's happening in China and it's working.


What is important to emphasize is that such things are much easier to implement in countries like China, because the state has mechanisms that put things in their place without asking ordinary people what they think about something. Western civilizations, however, have some kind of apparent democracy in which the people decide, so any radical change will go very slowly.

Unless we are not being relist the Central bank digital currencies is inevitable, we see the progress China has made iwth their own. The issue is that people should not compare this to the public blockchains we have in the space because they are not, you won't be able to verify their data

Do you guys seriously think that CBDC somehow will become more like stablecoins? I mean there is no way they would turn into stablecoins at all, they will definitely be just the digital form of the fiat currency and that would be the end of it, it will not be some sort of coin or a token or anything that uses blockchain at all, it will definitely be just a fiat thing that is ones and zeroes on some bank and that's it, nothing more.

Literally the same thing as you having money at the bank and using their cards to spend your money, you think your money is there, everyone thinks the same, and more often than not you can actually go and withdraw all of your money, however when it comes down to everyone withdrawing all at the same time bank wouldn't be capable of giving that, which means money is mostly digital there as well.

If this digital coin in the future won't come with blockchain then it has no point to use at all, and I don't think government does not see this fraction of mistake to implement. I don't think fiat will be replaced by this, in most probable case, digital currencies will be backed by fiat currency for it not to be so volatile and literally stablecoin. I know there are several countries that is taking experiment on it, I've read the tokenization experiment by the Russia.

CBDC is really a good idea, but if it is made available to the general public, it will implement a separate mechanism that is understood only by people working in government agencies. Do you think that the world's governments' digital currencies will be listed on Coinmarketcap or the crypto market? are not ! That is not possible. Cryptocurrencies are just one of the short-term solutions, and fiat money is one of the most manageable currencies. it can cause inflation, but we still have many ways to fix it and the bull will reappear. My advice is not to expect blockchain technology to have a future.

China is already on a transition: First Glance of China's Digital Currency (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240713.0) so we're closer than we think. Yes, we still has Visa and Mastercard at the sideline, but these CBDC's will be the next alternative coming from the government. Of course, there will be a lot of cros and pros, but with the recent pandemic, their use case multiple by many factors that's why government's are quickly trying to go live on at least on the testing phase of their CBDC.

I feel like governments are already making their move towards creating their digital form of cash and corona is great opportunity for them to inject more digitally printed money so they can reduce the printing costs as well but I don't think they have necessity to create their own centralized version of cryptos since it will be no more different from the fiat money in digital form.

Instead of this I do think one needs to remember that not every country is fortunate enough , the digital currencies and online transactions are still very weird for some people who are just trying to survive , the one's who cannot even afford to buy a smart phone . The government need to take these things into consideration before doing something like this , one needs time to do something like this , I did read comments on the USA digital currency where they mentioned how they are going to present the currency in like 3 years .
All the governmental process takes time and one has to even think about everyone or provide a basic tutorial for people about how to use it .
At the same time one can actually remember that "there are an estimated 1.1 billion people in the world who don't have access to electricity, meaning charging a phone, let alone owning one, would likely be difficult." .(taken from Google)

I've read some article a while ago that there are countries that is developing their own currency digitally. Fiat currency is strong however the digital currency is sweeping it away using innovation. China has been very positive with using digital currencies, their central bank is considering to create their own to prevent fiat based transactions which this time is very dangerous because of the virus. Some countries in Europe and Russia is designing their own CBDC.

No one knows how a CBDC will turn out to be when launched. Governments could simply use Blockchain technology or a centralized database of their own. I think they'll use Blockchain tech for this purpose, considering their level of interest in the same after Bitcoin came into inception a long time ago. They can have their own private blockchain network where central banks act as "miners", "stakers", or "validators" of the same. Governments will simply run nodes in order to support the centralized blockchain network. No one from the outside will be able to build/develop on it, neither browse transactions performed on-chain. Since it'll be a permissioned chain (rather than permission-less like Bitcoin or Ethereum), central banks and governments will have full control over people's money. This is even worse than physical cash or credit/debit cards, since every single transaction can be easily manipulated at will by said entities with the power of Blockchain technology. Privacy will be a thing of the past in the new digital money system backed by governments worldwide.

I've seen somewhere that China has already been testing a digital wallet for its own CBDC. There are pictures across the web, showing a concept of the wallet's interface. It seems that China is serious in launching a digital Yuan to the world. It'll only be a matter of time before other countries follow. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of CBDCs as we speak. The more people practice social distancing, the less physical cash/banknotes will be used in the mainstream world. This will further encourage governments to start launching CBDCs for the whole world to use. Believe it or not, CBDCs will be the future of the worldwide economy. Just my opinion :)

The Dutch central bank becomes the next to announce planned testing of CBDCs. https://cointelegraph.com/news/dutch-central-bank-ready-to-play-a-leading-role-with-digital-euro


As far as the underlying motivation goes:


It's obvious which way the winds are blowing now. China, EU, UK, and the US are all moving towards CBDCs behind the scenes.

Did you notice the report is talking about a national digital currency AND a European one? I started to wonder if the country is maybe planning to come back to the national currency without leaving the Euro money. In this case, they may use EUR only for Intra-European payments and the Dutch coin for the national payments

If they do it, there are some other countries that will do the same for sure. It would be nice, many of us in Europe regret a lot ours old national money since the Euro. The end of this stupid European centralization, yahoo!

There are a lot of more central banks working on CBDCs, so yeah no doubt we know what to expect now

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*wFKAkYNQ-J199vmhXfVjog.png
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/51526/at-least-18-central-banks-are-developing-sovereign-digital-currencies

This is some progress. It seems that countries worldwide are advancing to bring CBDCs to the masses. Especially now, when it's not safe to conduct transactions with physical cash due to exposure to COVID-19. With a fully digital currency, even physical credit/debit cards might cease to exist. Everything is shifting to the digital realm as we speak. The coronavirus pandemic will definitely accelerate the development of CBDCs and people will get used to the online world. Once everyone becomes interconnected, a whole new wave of possibilities is opened. One way or another, people will be forced to use a government-issued digital currency as physical cash will be phased out by central banks worldwide. I know it'll be hard for old people to get used to paying electronically at any store or retailer, since they've been accustomed to physical cash for a very long time. But I believe that adoption for CBDCs will increase slowly until everyone uses them massively for daily payments.

Now that major countries are beginning to work on CBDCs of their own, it should only be a matter of time before they start rolling them out for people in the mainstream world to use. Maybe China will be the first country to launch a CBDC? Or maybe it's the US? I believe that the first country to do this, will gain a major advantage in the world's economy. The US should adopt a digital dollar ASAP if it wants the "USD" to remain as the reserve currency of the world. Otherwise, it'll be left behind other countries with newly-adopted technologies that are bound to transform the worldwide economy. Just my opinion :)

there's been lots of mention from central banks about private stablecoins---not coronavirus---as the reason for the accelerated push towards central bank-issued digital currencies.

the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is the first i have noticed who seems to be citing the coronavirus as the basis for a rapid shift towards such digital payment rails. earlier this month, they released this report: Covid-19, cash, and the future of payments (https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull03.pdf)


and last week, this: BIS Innovation Hub Head: COVID-19 Has Exposed The Value of DLT (https://cointelegraph.com/news/bis-innovation-hub-head-covid-19-has-exposed-the-value-of-dlt)


whether or not the central banks are directly referencing the coronavirus pandemic in their reports, it will probably be a significant accelerating factor moving forward. i'm not sure what that means for bitcoin exactly.

I don't see any difference between using the national digital currency and a payment card. The difference in the use of CBDC and credit cards will not even differ in the calculations. But of course CBDC is more profitable for the government from an economic point of view.

Can you even prove what you have said? That people are practicing social distancing doesn’t mean that they will go for cryptocurrency, there are also other types of payment that people are making use of and they are all digital payments, it’s not just about cryptocurrency.

Where I live, most people are now making use of their banking apps when they want to make payments and some are making use of PayPal. I don’t see anyone that’s making use of cryptocurrency as a payment method; I know there are, but they are just few compared to the number of those that are making use of other payment methods

CBDCs could increase efficiency and reduce costs at every level. With them, there will be no need for credit/debit cards or even physical cash. Instead, governments will act as direct custodians of your money. Payments will be performed directly from one person to another without the need to go through a payment processor like VISA or Mastercard. The network will be entirely backed and operated by a central bank and the government itself.

As COVID-19 encourages people to practice social distancing, they'll become used to making digital payments in the online world. This will accelerate the development and launch of CBDCs more than anything else. Before COVID-19, it was announced that some countries will begin testing CBDCs. But the level of interest back then, was not the same as it is right now. China could be the first country to launch a CBDC, leaving the US in the dust. I hope it doesn't end this way, as it'll truly remove the US Dollar's place as the reserve currency of the world. If the US wants to stay ahead of the game, it'll need to approve the development of a digital dollar ASAP.

No matter how long it takes for people to begin using CBDCs, we cannot deny the fact that physical cash will be a thing of the past. We'll live in a future where CBDCs and cryptocurrencies will live alongside each other for many generations. The world's economy will be truly digital like never before. Salaries will be paid in digital money, while goods can be purchased with it. And all of this can be done with a computer or mobile device without the need to carry a wallet with you. COVID-19 will truly change our lives as it brings innovation to many of the world's industries. Our economy will never be the same as it was when physical cash was used by many people worldwide. Just my opinion :)

I understand the advantages of digital money for the government. I wrote that the transition from credit card payments to CBDC will be invisible to the average person. But I don't agree with you about CBDC replacing fiat. Fiat will be indispensable in places where there is a problem with the Internet and electricity.

If you believe that there is nothing sort of a coincidence, you could really think that someone out there had planned it out there paving its way to CBDC, and China has something to do with it. I wouldn't start discussing conspiracy theories in this thread though.

But replacing fiat may not be what will happen. China's DCEP will be just the first of the example about this but its still somewhat of the digital fiat.

There are people who are so old that, they couldn't even adapt to credit cards, literally going to banks to withdraw their money in cash and still using that cash. At one point I find it very smart because those people do not really know the idea of debt that much, they have a certain amount of cash at hand and they use it and use it only.

We are not like that, we live in a system where we are always in debt, which is why it is harder for us, the bigger that debt goes the more we have to work and we only have on life almost all of which will go with paying off debt. So, at the end of the day you will not be able to convince someone to understand what CBDC is when they are barely understanding the concept of credit cards.

You have to wait for them to die (I know a bad thought, we all have elderly) and eventually people who understand this will be the old people.

That's certainly true, mate. Old people will find it hard to use digital money in the online world. Despite the benefits credit/debit cards provide, old people have "sticked" to physical cash for a very long time. Only new generations (mostly millennials) have made use of digital payments in their daily lives. Because of this, I believe that the process of transitioning from physical cash to a CBDC will take much longer than expected. Governments will have to slowly introduce digital money alongside physical cash until the latter is phased out from mainstream use. Only then, the battle will be between CBDCs and decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I believe that COVID-19 has accelerated the need for a CBDC since physical cash can serve as a way to propagate the virus more thoroughly. With people becoming more interconnected in the online world as a result of social distancing measures, the future of money will be digitized as we know it. Of course, credit/debit cards can still be used online but they're extremely inefficient for money transfers across borders. A CBDC powered by Blockchain technology should make payments faster, and cheaper than never before. I believe that governments will act as nodes of their own private blockchain network, while central banks will be in-charge of "mining" the CBDC. The person using a CBDC will not notice much difference to the traditional banking system of today, because the system will be centralized. But the way it works internally, will be just like crypto. Just my thoughts ;D

Analytics firm S&P Global agrees with you. They just put out this piece yesterday: From hygiene to aid, COVID-19 strengthens case for central bank digital money (https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/from-hygiene-to-aid-covid-19-strengthens-case-for-central-bank-digital-money-58321056)

According to Deutsche Bank, we could see CBDCs circulating within the next three years.


That last line is a little ominous. They now have a great excuse to phase out cash, so of course they're seizing the opportunity.

Well, one of the reasons I think governments are still waiting with CBDCs is just an efficiency problem. This has to do with changes to the current economic model which could be provoked by CBDCs.

Basically, CBDCs could lead very fastly to a centralization of the banking sector. As normal people do not need bank accounts anymore because they can open CBDC accounts, they would open a bank account only for special purposes, e.g. if they need a loan or if they are entrepreneurs needing to accept certain payment forms. This would rapidly lead to a situation where 1) as banks continue to have to respect the fractional reserve policy of their country, they would come in need to borrow more money from the Central Bank and 2) this and the collapse of the "account market" would very fastly lead to the banking sector becoming much smaller and more concentrated.

What has this to do with efficiency? Well, it's believed in many economics theories that a private - and fairly decentralized - banking sector with dozens or hundreds of competing banks is more efficient in detecting the needs of the local economies, above all when they give out loans to local businesses. With strong CBDCs and a weak banking sector, the Central Bank would have to try to compensate for these advantages of local/smaller banks - they would need to try to foresee the needs of local businesses all over their jurisdiction and plan accordingly. So basically the systems would have more characteristics of a centrally planned economy, and almost universally it's believed in economics that these systems are less efficient when it comes to allocation of resources (see the collapse of the Soviet Union as an example)*.

Now there is a twist still: with P2P loans and even Bitcoin/crypto ICOs (which are, in reality, another form of "loan" to raise funds for businesses and projects) there are new loan mechanisms from the digital era. If these could replace part of the role local banks played before, then CDBCs could work well. But I think governments distrust these loan mechanisms and so they're still waiting and testing.

*China is a strange exception to that theory, and they have long experience with a centrally managed economy, so it's no surprise they're most advanced regarding CBDCs.

For some time now, I have been making almost all my payment through electronics transfer, resolve all my banking issues online except I need to sign off a mandate or pick an ATM card from the bank. I honestly see no much reason printing money and storing them inside the bank vault with policemen and security forces on guard,  and making cashiers to keep counting cash with the hazard that comes with it. Many banks in my city have shut their doors because of Covid-19, and they said people must think digital to safeguard our health. We must move away from paper money at lest with 90%.

The ongoing debacle created by the Covid19 virus from Wuhan, China is becoming the top main reason why central banks can be going to digitalize their national currencies. We know that changes on that level are not easy to come by and for sure the digitalization proposal can take some time...but with the virus things can be hastened. With developments now underway in China (ironically, the source of the current virus), I am sure that other nations will not hesitate to look at the advantages of this idea.

I think so like you. People are now staying at home leaving their work. Now they are trying to engage in online bill, online shopping, online marketing, online business, online investment etc. In this case, necessary of digital currency inevitable. Many people are now being interested to cryptocurrency. Many of them are investing in this platform. So, I think Central banks of the countries will consider the matter to permit crypto as a digital currency for transaction in near future.

Already some governments said that they are going to encourage digital payments from now on, so possibly some governments will create their own digital currencies especially China will do that in near future.But we those centralized payment system still useless to the citizens and with the digitization governments can intrude into our privacy more compared to banking transaction mode.

Good point. Central banks need to throughly test a CBDC before launching it to the public. As you've mentioned earlier, there's still the problem of efficiency. Banks are trying to figure out how to launch their own digital currency solutions without sacrificing efficiency and stability. It'll be hard to make people use a CBDC over physical cash in its very beginnings, since old people are not willing to change the way they use money. Maybe in a couple of years from now, we'll be able to experience digital payments more throughly.

One thing for sure is that China has been quickly advancing the development of its own CBDC. If it manages to launch it first than any other country, it will have a "leading edge" on the world's economy. Then, it'll be the battle of supremacy as other countries try to launch their own CBDCs as well. The US does not want to lose the "USD" as the world's reserve currency, so I think it will begin the adoption of a digital US Dollar soon. Once CBDCs become a reality, there will be a transformation in many of the world's industries as well as the mainstream economy. Payments between banks (B2B transfers) will be blazing fast, while costs will be reduced like never before. It'll be a new era where intangible items will prevail over tangible ones. Either central banks use a Blockchain of their own, or simply rely on an existent one like Ripple's XRP Distributed Ledger.

Nonetheless, people are still using physical cash and credit/debit cards despite COVID-19. I believe that CBDCs will continue to be in development during the next few years, until they're ready for launch. The main concern will be people's privacy over mainstream transactions performed with a CBDC on top of physical Fiat. But that's something we don't need to worry about at least for 20 - 30 years from now. Just my opinion :)