FRONTIER RESEARCH
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
A revolution in digital cash
UCL CBT is leading the field of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) with groundbreaking research, training and activities
Will there be a government-backed digital currency as a public digital payment option?
Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology are designs whose original use case was centered on digital currencies. As a result, an increasing number of Central Banks is considering using this technology to support a new public payment option in the form of digital cash: Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs. Researchers at UCL’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies are leading this field and laying the ground for the next digital money revolution.
FRONTIER RESEARCH
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
A revolution in digital cash
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UCL CBT is leading the field of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) with groundbreaking research, training and activities
Will there be a government-backed digital currency as a public digital payment option?
Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology are designs whose original use case was centered on digital currencies. As a result, an increasing number of Central Banks is considering using this technology to support a new public payment option in the form of digital cash: Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs. Researchers at UCL’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies are leading this field and laying the ground for the next digital money revolution.
Training Central Banks
UCL CBT has partnered with the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies, an association of Central Banks, to train its staff in matters related to blockchain and distributed ledger technology in general, and on CDBCs in particular. In doing so, over the course of more than two years, technical, monetary and social implications of different emerging technologies are continuously discussed with the different departments, conducting a joint exploration of the limits and potential of each particular design choice.
UCL CBT has also engaged with multiple other Central Banks, including the Bank of England. UCL CBT co-organised the Central Bank Digital Currency Roundtable with Farrer&Co at the Bank of England on 20 Nov. 2020. This roundtable counted with the participation of UCL CBT’s Executive Director, Dr. Paolo Tasca, and UCL CBT Associate Geoffrey Goodell.
CBDC Conferences
On December 1 and 2, 2021, UCL CBT run the P2P Financial Systems Conference (P2PFISY 2021). Day 1 of this conference was entirely devoted to CBDCs, specifically how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will and should impact the financial infrastructure. Specific sub-topics included:
- Problems addressed by CBDCs and problems with CBDCs
- How a successful CBDC solution looks like
- Retail CBDCs: custodianship, privacy, e-commerce, merchant incentives
- Beyond CBDCs: implications for fiscal and monetary policy
- CBDCs: legal and regulatory challenges
- CBDCs: Centralized or Distributed Ledger Technology
- Trade-offs in CBDC architectures and designs
The P2PFISY Conference has also featured a panel discussion on CBDCs in 2020, with the participation of representatives of the Bank of England, University of Pennsylvania, IMF and Reuters. P2PFISY featured the papers “How Central Banks Stay Relevant” (Jim Cunha), “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (Antoine Martin), “Monetary Policy Implications Of Central Bank Issued Digital Currency” (Katrin Assenmacher), in addition to “Central Bank Design Thinking” (Antoine Martin), as well as “Digital Currencies: what lies ahead?” (Daniel Heller), the keynote speech “The Future of Money” by Robert Sams), and “The Macroeconomics of Central Bank Issued Digital Currency” (John Barrdear and Michael Kumhof).
Learn more at the official website.
CBDC Conferences
On December 1 and 2, 2021, UCL CBT is running the P2P Financial Systems Conference (P2PFISY 2021). Day 1 of this conference is entirely devoted to CBDCs, specifically how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will and should impact the financial infrastructure. Particular sub-topics include:
- Problems addressed by CBDCs and problems with CBDCs
- How a successful CBDC solution looks like
- Retail CBDC: custodianship, privacy, e-commerce, merchant incentives
- Beyond CBDCs: implications for fiscal and monetary policy
- CBDCs: legal and regulatory challenges
- CBDCs: Centralized or Distributed Ledger Technology
- Trade-offs in CBDC architectures and designs
The P2PFISY Conference has also featured a panel discussion on CBDCs in 2020, with the participation of representatives of the Bank of England, University of Pennsylvania, IMF and Reuters. P2PFISY featured the papers “How Central Banks Stay Relevant” (Jim Cunha), “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (Antoine Martin), and “Monetary Policy Implications Of Central Bank Issued Digital Currency” (Katrin Assenmacher) in 2019, in addition to “Central Bank Design Thinking” (Antoine Martin) in 2018, as well as “Digital Currencies: what lies ahead?” (Daniel Heller) in 2017 (and the keynote speech “The Future of Money” by Robert Sams), and “The Macroeconomics of Central Bank Issued Digital Currency” (John Barrdear and Michael Kumhof) in 2016.
Learn more at the official website.
UCL CBT CBDC Highlights
— UCL CBT Associate Xiaochen Zhang gave the opening remarks at and co-chaired the CBDC forum.
— UCL CBT Associate Krzysztof Piech co-chaired a panel discussion on stablecoins and CBDCs at the Blockchain Finance Forum: Europe 2021.
— UCL CBT Associate Jane Thomason Hosted a Global Distributed Policy Thinkathon Series on topics including Central Bank Digital Currencies.
— UCL CBT launched a free blockchain course in FutureLearn with CBDCs as a part of the curriculum.
— UCL CBT Associate Angela Walch was a panelist at the CBDC conference “Digital Currencies Central Banks and the Blockchain: Policy Implications” at the Austrian National Bank in Vienna.
— UCL CBT Associate Hossein Nabilou published the paper “Central Bank Digital Currencies: Preliminary Legal Observations”.
— UCL CBT Associate Noémie Dié released a paper on the adequacy for DLT-based CBDCs for monetary policiy in the COVID crisis.
— UCL CBT Associate Francesca Medda released the paper “Euro CBDC: A Regime to Enhance the Next Generation EU Fund.”
— UCL CBT Associate Xiaochen Zhang published a whitepaper on CBDCs.
— UCL CBT Associate Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi co-authored “A Proposal for Sovereign-backed FX Digital Currencies”, a proposal for an alternative to CBDCs.
— UCL CBT co-organised the Crypto Valley Conference, including focus on CBDCs, in 2019.
— UCL CBT funded the research project “Designing for Public Policy Stablecoins” (Philip Treleaven, Thamim Ahmed, Francesca Medda, Alexander Lipton, Henry Balani) in 2019-2020.
UCL CBT CBDC Highlights
— UCL CBT Associate Xiaochen Zhang gave the opening remarks at and co-chaired the CBDC forum.
— UCL CBT Associate Krzysztof Piech co-chaired a panel discussion on stablecoins and CBDCs at the Blockchain Finance Forum: Europe 2021.
— UCL CBT Associate Jane Thomason Hosted a Global Distributed Policy Thinkathon Series on topics including Central Bank Digital Currencies.
— UCL CBT launched a free blockchain course in FutureLearn with CBDCs as a part of the curriculum.
— UCL CBT Associate Angela Walch was a panelist at the CBDC conference “Digital Currencies Central Banks and the Blockchain: Policy Implications” at the Austrian National Bank in Vienna.
— UCL CBT Associate Hossein Nabilou published the paper “Central Bank Digital Currencies: Preliminary Legal Observations”.
— UCL CBT Associate Noémie Dié a paper on the adequacy for DLT-based CBDCs for monetary policiy in the COVID crisis.
— UCL CBT Associate Francesca Medda released the paper “Euro CBDC: A Regime to Enhance the Next Generation EU Fund.”
— UCL CBT Associate Xiaochen Zhang published a whitepaper on CBDCs.
— UCL CBT Associate Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi co-authored “A Proposal for Sovereign-backed FX Digital Currencies”, a proposal for an alternative to CBDCs.
— UCL CBT co-organised the Crypto Valley Conference, including focus on CBDCs, in 2019.
— UCL CBT funded the research project “Designing for Public Policy Stablecoins” (Philip Treleaven, Thamim Ahmed, Francesca Medda, Alexander Lipton, Henry Balani) in 2019-2020.
Further Research
Other UCL CBT research papers on CBDCs include:
- “Digital Currency and Economic Crises: Helping States Respond” (Geoffrey Goodell, Hazem Danny Al-Nakib and Paolo Tasca).
- “A Digital Currency Architecture for Privacy and Owner-Custodianship” (Geoffrey Goodell, Hazem Danny Al-Nakib and Paolo Tasca).
- “The Development of Central Bank Digital Currency in China: An Analysis” (Geoffrey Goodell and Hazem Danny Al-Nakib).
- “Libra: Is it Really about the Money?” (Valerie Khan and Geoffrey Goodell).
Further Research
Other UCL CBT research papers on CBDCs include:
- “Digital Currency and Economic Crises: Helping States Respond” (Geoffrey Goodell, Hazem Danny Al-Nakib and Paolo Tasca).
- “A Digital Currency Architecture for Privacy and Owner-Custodianship” (Geoffrey Goodell, Hazem Danny Al-Nakib and Paolo Tasca).
- “The Development of Central Bank Digital Currency in China: An Analysis” (Geoffrey Goodell and Hazem Danny Al-Nakib).
- “Libra: Is it Really about the Money?” (Valerie Khan and Geoffrey Goodell).