Bitcoin Forum

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are coming fast. Recent article focuses on impact of digital yuan (likely first) to dollar, but what impact will it have on bitcoin or any?  I know they are not the same thing, but will eventual widespread adoption of government issued e-currencies (a given IMHO... just when) help or hurt bitcoin?

Geopolitical fallout of central bank digital currencies
https:/Geopolitical fallout of central bank digital currenciescointelegraph.com/news/geopolitical-fallout-of-central-bank-digital-currencies

It's either help, or no impact in my opinion.

The news of China having a digital currency might just bring people more interest to bitcoin, and hopefully end up with most people realizing the importance and the advantages of having a digital trustless currency rather than a centralized one.

Voted for no impact because it's the safer bet.

Voted for no impact. A CBDC does not in any way boost Bitcoin's use and adoption. Neither does it compete with Bitcoin's fundamental features. So I guess it won't have any effect on Bitcoin and its growth. A CBDC is a digital fiat. It does not have much difference from using online fiat payment systems.

I'm leaning towards a mild positive impact or no impact at all.
Bitcoin can function as an alternative medium of payment and not the first layer, so new innovations in the traditional sector would have little or no effect. We already have wide spread adoption of fiat currencies now, yet Bitcoin has risen exponentially over the last ten years.

Creating a tokenized legal tender would not solve the underlying issues in the banking sector which makes the sector unattractive and drives people to Bitcoin. It would also not run similar to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. A CBDC would function exactly like a traditional currency and would be subject to cash injections, modifications of interest rates, money printing (or minting), centralized control, inflation etc.
It would not share any of the qualities of Bitcoin such as being disinflationary, immutable, trustless and decentralized, as such it cannot function as a replacement for it.

CBDCs is a war among countries to stay ahead of the digitalization wave and gain control on the tokenized legal tender market. The quicker they can get a digital currency running the better they can adapt to the sector and make deliberate improvements.

If CBDCs would have hurt bitcoin,,, then they would have done it a long time ago when they first came out. Especially now that some of the currencies being proposed will be using blockchain,,, how can it hurt the technology that is driving them in the first place?

When people start seeing banks and governments use blockchain, then they understand they can stop fearing it.

The impact of the digital yuan and other stablecoins of national central banks will be controversial. On the one hand, the use of digitized currencies of states will also generate general interest in decentralized cryptocurrency,
and in particular to bitcoin.
However, the use of the digital yuan and other similar stablecoins of states as a means of payment will weaken the use of bitcoin as a means of payment.

really? when was the last time you used cash and not a "digital currency" in form of your credit card, debit card,... through your bank account, etc.? all the different methods we use our money (fiat) every day is through banks and their "digital currencies".
i don't see how changing "digital" to "crypto" (which is what the real name should say by the way) would change anything. it will be another "account" controlled by the bank and the same exact thing as fiat bank accounts.

if anything this could push more people towards bitcoin (the decentralized money).

Bitcoin has been used for more than 10 years but there just a few users who used bitcoin as a means of payment, most of them are using bitcoin as a means of investment place only. So, I'll vote there will be no impact if every government make their own digital currency to be used by their citizen. Unless, if most bitcoin's user use bitcoin as a means of payment, then there will be many people who use digital currency for their transaction since government will stay to keep banned it.

No Impact will be seen on cryptocurrencies due to the worldwide release for various CBDCs!

CBDCs are as good (or bad) as fiat currency, now with more transparency to the government. So now with CBDC, government will have a bird's eye view on your personal finances. They will know how much you earn and spend with just a click on their computer. How on earth it will impact cryptos? I don't see a justified reason for CBDCs to impact cryptos in any way!

We are anyways using our mobile wallets to pay for everything now. During the lockdown period in our country, I personally have not used cash. I even paid the salaries of my maid and my car wash person using my mobile wallet. CBDCs will be very similar to this system. Cryptos belong to a very different world altogether.

I voted no impact as well and it's not a threat either. It's just government saying they wanted to join crypto space by having their own crypto back token. And mostly if will be private blockchain though, so effect at all whatsoever to the current ecosystem. What's interesting is that government are going to used this CBDC to be another way of taxing their people, so we need to be careful of this CBDC's though. Well if you can used it within your country then good, but we should weight whether it could really bring a total cashless society or will it be another burden for us.

CBDCs might actually help Bitcoin because it would be easier/more convenient to move digital fiat to exchanges to buy, and HODL Bitcoin. Haha. 8)

I am really irresolute about this. I think there are just two alternative answers for this question. The first is, CBDC could help Bitcoin be adopted more easily because governments will start loving the digital currency system and it could lead to accepting Bitcoin as an alternative for a CBDC too. The second answer is, CBDC could have no impact on Bitcoin adoption at all.  

This is tough one. Normally i would say that it shouldn't really have much of an impact, if anything it should help create more public awareness, interest and debate on bitcoin( which always a good thing IMO). 

Now I don't really think a CBDC will harm bitcoin because bitcoin largely caters to a different market (those focused on privacy and sound money principles which is not something you would get with CBDC's  in fact it would only make it easier for sates to monitor everything you do.)

However i feel that CBDC could negatively impact Bitcoin ( at least its price) through tether. CBDC's could very well be a competitor and alternative to the swath of stable coins currently on the market and most of the KYC or heavily regulated exchanges (coinbase) could be expected to create trading pairs with a US CBDC. ( this would also mean more money flowing in to crypto in general since it would make it easier for the masses to enter)

Again the impact here would largely be dependent on your thoughts on the solvency of tether. It could be the nail that brings it down or it could finally be what gives the whole market a more trusted stable coin ( at the cost of less privacy and  more regulation)

I voted for no impact which is currently the most popular choice in this poll. These currencies are not cryptos, and I don't think that people who use cryptos would go for them. People who use fiat, on the other hand, may be tempted to try something new like this. So the impact on fiat currencies can be significant, but Bitcoin will neither lose nor gain from this decision alone. However, it can indirectly lose because of digital currencies in case they become the favorites of the government and the majority of people, which in turn would make outlawing Bitcoin possible.

Are they coming up fast though? It has been 2-3 years since everyone started hyping them, and there's still not a single CBDC that was actually launched. And even if its launched, it then needs to actually get users, and not fail spectacularly, like Venezuela's Petro did. So, let's just worry about CBDC when/if they actually become a thing, and not just vaporware.

Hmmm, it is interesting how CBDCs will work towards bitcoin. I voted that it will hurt bitcoin in some ways AS A CURRENCY, as we know there are people who are using bitcoin as a currency on buying stuff online to protect their privacy. But for an investment? there's no way CBDCs can touch bitcoin, it might help people to discover bitcoin and make a way in buying bitcoin. It all depends, centralization vs decentralization, what the people want.

CBDC will not hurt the bitcoin because CBDC is not going to suppress the usage of bitcoin at any point since that CBDC can be only used in side the nation's border so it is just same as the current fiat system so stable coins are comparatively better than CBDCs. :)

That could be a little help from it. I don't see it that there's a negative impact from CBDCs affecting bitcoin and this is just the first from it. I don't want to think that they've made it just because of bitcoin.

If CBDCs trial going to be positive from the people, they could at least understand that it's okay to have bitcoin as their holding. But differentiating CBDCs to bitcoin, we all know that bitcoin's got more value than those.

i guess the rise of CBDCs will have positive impact on bitcoin. because once these users came to know the benefits of bitcoin over their CBDC, they will switch to btc. but CBDC is a good stepping ground for new users to appreciate the value of crypto. and so they will discover soon about the advantages of btc over CBDC. so bottomline, we have nothing against CBDC, it is just paving the way to have more crypto or btc users

Or if they've been launched, we never heard anyone becoming successful, Venezuela's Petro is a fraud by itself, being used to circumvent the sanctions against them but it failed miserably. Russian's crypto rubble was a total failure as well. They can developed as many as CBDC's as they want, but if people are not using to use them, then it won't have any impact at all.

It doesnt help nor give an impact.This digital yuan is no different with fiat and we know that it cant really make an effect on Bitcoin market.They can switch all they want
but to think that making your fiat to digital isnt something new.So just let them be on what are the things they do wanna like to do.It wont be a surprising thing
if other government would do the same thing or do such trend yet crypto will always be a different market that doesnt rely nor dependent on other markets.

It might happen.

We're all good with the speculations and it's always there's good, bad and just neutral thoughts about it. Once we see it rolling, we get to know more about CBDCs.

People who will use CBDC if the government pushes it and if they start to have an idea about it, they'll also become curious about bitcoin, those people who really have no idea about bitcoin.

I feel like the CBDC's will help Bitcoin.  The CBDC's will be a gateway to the world of digital assets for the masses.  Depending on how they are setup and regulated,  it could make transferring fiat in and out of crypto easier, kind of greasing the wheels of liquidity.  I could see CBDC's being a new kind of crypto "stablecoin" if in the future we are able to flow into different asset classes seamlessly.  And the technology is constantly evolving so the future will look radically different than the present. 

I'm not sure if CBDC will be helpful for Bitcoin adoption, but digital currencies won't hurt Bitcoin. CBDC is just a modernized form of fiat we are using now.

I am one of those who agree that CBDC will help Bitcoin, because if it is true CBDC is officially used by all countries.
All digital payments will be impacted, including Bitcoin which should also be affected. Everyone will study all E-currency,
and will definitely start learning and using Bitcoin. Then Bitcoin will become increasingly popular, and there could be mass
adoption. So indirectly Bitcoin became famous due to the coming of CBDC. People will prefer to use digital currency as payment,
because my prediction in the future financial transactions will be cashless.

I too agreed for similar reasons.   IMHO, CBDC will increase awareness and adoption of 'digital currencies' in general and since CBDC are almost on opposite sides of the DC's spectrum (centralized vs. decentralized, fixed cap vs. 'at the issuing government's whim' cap, etc..)  bitcoin will sought after by those seeking bitcoin's true virtues.

No impact or help IMO. It's really hard to say if these centralized currencies will be understood by people. If they are then finally people will realize there are centralized and decentralized currencies and some of them may sway towards decentralization.

You as bitcoiners may find it strange but most people don't know what a decentralzied currency is.

Wouldn't say its gonna hurt Bitcoin but it will hurt people not using Crypto. If you dont have the option to use an anon currency and are forced to only use a digital centralised coin. Orwell...

I'm actually glad that there's a no-impact option since seeing the thread title, I initially thought it would only help or hurt options which would be pretty stupid. There's honestly no impact at all imo, and even if there was, it would be a helpful one, but at a rather minimal level. Mostly because I doubt they would even clash with each other? It's not like Bitcoin is threatening fiat, heck, I'm more concerned about Gold here since the two have been compared as safe assets from so long now, as for fiat? As long as the government doesn't agree with it, I really doubt it would go nor would Bitcoin actually be more important than it. At most an equal level importance between the two, but a hierarchy of Bitcoin being superior? I doubt that.

CBDC aims to help people become more automated, improve QoL in other words. Cryptos, on the other hand, want you to take hold of your funds and be directly responsible for them, while having no risk at all of someone actually doing something wrong with it when storing it, since technically, only you can access it. Most would probably prefer the former, but that doesn't mean that they would hate the latter, since it doesn't really affect their lives.