Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are in the limelight. But the reasons for issuing them vary between countries, as do the policy approaches and technical designs. This paper looks at the economic and institutional motives behind current CBDC projects and asks how they might shape the design of such currencies.
We draw up a database of research and development work, technical approaches and policy stances for the issuance of CBDCs. We assess the policy stance based on a database of more than 16,000 central bank speeches. We also take stock of actual development efforts, providing a taxonomy of technical designs from all relevant policy and analytical publications published by central banks worldwide. Next we look at the drivers of CBDC projects by relating development intensity to the economic and institutional differences between countries. Based on public reports and interviews with central bank experts, we set out the policy approaches behind three CBDC projects: China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payments (DC/EP), Sweden’s e-krona and the Bank of Canada’s CBDC contingency plan.
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