Could the digital Euro, Dollar or Yuan bank the unbanked?

[davis196]

May time we forget that there are millions of people out there that do not have access to any type of banking. I am speaking of millions that do not geenrate a recurrent income, do not have access to credit and have their lives quite limited for that fact.

One of the possible advantages of having digital currencies that are recognised by strong central banks and can be moved digitally is the possible access of all this people to a system of storage, exchange and maybe even credit through the digital official coins. I can only begin to imagine how huge can be the economy enabled by these initiatives if bitcoin alone has already taken a preeminent place in a few countries such as Nigeria, Myanmar, Venezuela, ...

A vast majority of the "unbanked" people don't use bank services simply because they are poor.
They don't have money to deposit in a bank account.They don't have a stable 9/5 job or a collateral,in order to get a bank loan.Not having a PC and internet connection is another big obstacle.Poverty is the main reason why the people are "unbanked".
CBDCs cannot solve their problem,because CBDCs can't help them escape poverty.
Unfortunately the crypto industry cannot help those people,because it doesn't create enough jobs for people with low qualifications.

[satsmainman]

Traditional banking system is full of bureaucracy, procedures and limitation that in most cases contribute to keeping millions of people out of banking entirely. However crypto on the other hand does not involve many of these bureaucratic procedures, thus making it seamless to onboard anyone. I believe the digital Euro, Dollar or Yuan can in a great way bank the unbanked.

[DooMAD]

I believe CBDCs will be accessed through browsing phones or computers

Once the gatekeepers have granted you access.  And given that they'll be the same gatekeepers who are currently keeping people unbanked in the current legacy financial system...

I think that it may be quite different actually. Commercial banks are there to make profit and they will avoid anyone that looks more of a problem than a profitable customer. However central banks may have political objectives in mind that could potentially help the unbanked since they do not intend to make a profit, or at least a profit in the way we may understand when thinking of a traditional bank.

There may be some gate-keeping, but it may not be like the ones we currently know. For example, there were no micro-credits until someone decided to start giving them - eg. in India - and they worked wonderfully.

I hope you're right.  Maybe I'm just being cynical.  Nothing ever seems to break the cycle where money = power and what you're describing would very much shift the emphasis away from the power of commercial banks.  The point was continuously reinforced that commercial banks are an essential pillar of the economy, which fully justified all the bailouts/bailins so I can't see how their influence could be so suddenly diminished with the advent of CBDCs.

[Anonylz]

May time we forget that there are millions of people out there that do not have access to any type of banking. I am speaking of millions that do not geenrate a recurrent income, do not have access to credit and have their lives quite limited for that fact.

One of the possible advantages of having digital currencies that are recognised by strong central banks and can be moved digitally is the possible access of all this people to a system of storage, exchange and maybe even credit through the digital official coins. I can only begin to imagine how huge can be the economy enabled by these initiatives if bitcoin alone has already taken a preeminent place in a few countries such as Nigeria, Myanmar, Venezuela, ...

I think right now the limitations are more than the goal to bank the unbanked, when you observe closely, 99% of the unbanked are located mostly in developing countries with very limited to no access to modern infrastructure, people in this remote areas can not access this infrastructure niether can they benefit from the digital way of doing transaction, in other to be able to do this, they will need access to internet, good device and most of all the knowledge to operate,

even though this may appear as an easy way to bank the unbanked, there are draw back still.

[el kaka22]

I think it probably will help a bit more. Not all unbanked are unbanked because of technology, even if you are severely poor and do not have any money at all, you can still start a bank account in anywhere near you. However there are very poverty ridden places in the world where people do not even have a need to start a bank. In my nation there are places where no civilization even goes because there is no need, they do not see the point of it.

So at the end of the day, what would happen if those people had digital euro? I mean they do not even have a regular banks so I do not see a digital fiat to be helpful to them, neither bitcoin for that matter neither for most unbanked. I am almost certain that most people who has ever been part of bitcoin also had a bank account as well, obviously not all but a huge majority of us did had a bank account.

[eaLiTy]

May time we forget that there are millions of people out there that do not have access to any type of banking. I am speaking of millions that do not geenrate a recurrent income, do not have access to credit and have their lives quite limited for that fact.

I cannot understand the logic behind these statements, people are living in a remote village that does not have any banking facilities but you expect them to have Internet connection and other modern gadgets, or the poor and the unbanked are there because they cannot go to a bank and create a savings bank account but they have the knowledge of using a gadget or a mobile phone and all the technology available  .

If you are looking for a credit it is mandatory that you need to have a savings bank account to pledge or you need to give a collateral to get that credit, if you are talking about the poor and the unbanked getting that opportunity, who is going to provide the capital for infrastructure. What i am trying to tell is that the poor always care about basic needs like food good drinking water and shelter and they do not care about getting a bank account either digitally or other ways.

There may be some gate-keeping, but it may not be like the ones we currently know. For example, there were no micro-credits until someone decided to start giving them - eg. in India - and they worked wonderfully.

Since you touched the topic of micro credit in India, do you have any idea about the interest percentage they charge for small amounts, it is insanely large and that too for small period of time and if you miss the compound interest will pile up and end up in a huge debt.

There were many suicide case in India regarding this and so is the reason the authorities started taking action against these micro lenders last year and found out that they were functioning without the RBI permission and many of the arrested company owners were Benami partners and they were run by Chinese citizens.

[terrorJR]

one country like Venezuela is of particular concern to us, despite some information to suggest that there is currently an increase from the tax increase to around $ 2.5. the position of digital money should be used as a reference for the future even for the country of Venezuela or Taiwan.
with Bitcoin as a pilot form for the adoption of digital money using the blockchain system. the government and banks are still the main obstacles to legal regulation of digital money. while the Yuan, Euro and also the Dollar above are trying to provide a solution. Is it possible for Venezuela to be able to make government policies to continue to include loans from Yuan or Dollar?

[stompix]

May time we forget that there are millions of people out there that do not have access to any type of banking. I am speaking of millions that do not geenrate a recurrent income, do not have access to credit and have their lives quite limited for that fact.

Strictly talking about the EU area here.
You don't have to be employed to have a bank account, and the numbers of people unbanked is going down if we look at the EU but only the Eurozone, so excluding  Romania or Bulgaria the number is closing on the 90% for adults with Finland and Belgium close to 100% already, alongside Denmark (not eurozone member)

So, a digital EURO wouldn't change much in terms of banking and access to banks, plus having a banking account would still be a necessity even with CBDC.
Second, a digital currency alone will not make you eligible for a credit card, you would still need a job and disposable income for it.

Would a digital euro change something in the Eurozone on those aspects? Probably not. If we speak about the whole EU-27 or we expand it to Europe then things are getting too murky to even approximate, it would depend on the decisions of each country and their won legislation and infrastructure so probably too early to even try and figure it out since we don't know too much about how a digital euro will even be created, and if it will ever be...

I cannot understand the logic behind these statements, people are living in a remote village that does not have any banking facilities but you expect them to have Internet connection and other modern gadgets, or the poor and the unbanked are there because they cannot go to a bank and create a savings bank account but they have the knowledge of using a gadget or a mobile phone and all the technology available  .

I can tell you something about the village where my grandparents live.
Internet and TV, water, gas, and electricity, roads in quite good quality, almost all except the really old, for example even my aunt who is in the late 70, are using a smartphone but when it comes to money they only deal in cash! Everyone is paying their bills at a small store using bills, everyone knows how to operate that ATM to pay for everything but nobody is touching even debit cards, not credit cards. I once tried to pay there with a card there and the cashier realized after 2 minutes that the PoS wasn't even connected as nobody used it then he reset everything, he scanned the products again, nothing worked....so I ended up paying in cash!  
Of course, it's not the same for poorer countries but at least in the EU is not the lack of the infrastructure that is holding things down but the distrusts of the people.

For developing countries, a digital currency will not be a magical pill either.
It doesn't matter if you can suddenly do cheap transactions and send money instantly with a tap if you don't have a job to earn money in the first place or you earn just to barely survive.

[zanezane]

If it involves electronic devices, I am pretty sure that we aren't going to be able to bank the unbanked because poor people don't have the luxury like us privileged people to have a mobile devices which we took for granted so we thought that maybe if we can do it then probably everyone can do it too. Bitcoin didn't bank the unbanked completely, what would it look like do you think on this copycats?