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Aside from perhaps lack of developers / competency, I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Mark Carney (current Bank of England

Aside from perhaps lack of developers / competency, I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Mark Carney (current Bank of England governor) has been warming up to the idea - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/20/mark-carney-bank-of-england-lend-digital-business-sme-cryptocurrency https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/20/mark-carney... Not sure if that because he is setting himself up for a new job at Libra after his BoE gig finishes in 2 months, or is there merit to the idea and appetite from central bankers?

robjan 7y ago
Aren't all currencies digital these days? When I receive my salary it's just an entry in a digital ledger and when I buy something it's just another entry.
lm28469 7y ago
> Aside from the perhaps lack of developers / competency, I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Why would they though ? I can transfer money worldwide in a few hours for very little fees already. Normal currencies are good for 99.99% of use cases. Aren't most currencies already mostly digital, they're literally integers in databases around the world, most of it isn't backed by any physical currency. Facebook wants its own currency because it would allow granular tracking and profiling like never before. What would banks gain from it ?
- dharma1 7y ago
  I can think of a few reasons 1) Geopolitical - if there was a widely accepted, regulated global currency that is relatively non-volatile, pegged on a basket of assets, I think many countries would gladly do cross-border trade in that rather than USD. I don't think Libra will be it, because it's perceived as being Facebook coin. But an effort from central banks could be it. 2) mainstream programmable money doesn't really exist, neither do microtransactions, or access to the financial system for many of the world's poor
sschueller 7y ago
The Swiss National Bank is hiring blockchain people. They may be planning a stable coin.
ian0 7y ago
>> I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Because they already have one? And it comes with handy features such as being available in paper form, storable in a regular DB, relatively stable and manipulatable and easy for everyone to understand. And a whole host of other goodies gleaned out of 400 years of attempting to keep the gears moving while keeping economic implosion to the bare minimum.

robjan 7y ago

Aren't all currencies digital these days? When I receive my salary it's just an entry in a digital ledger and when I buy something it's just another entry.

lm28469 7y ago

> Aside from the perhaps lack of developers / competency, I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Why would they though ? I can transfer money worldwide in a few hours for very little fees already. Normal currencies are good for 99.99% of use cases. Aren't most currencies already mostly digital, they're literally integers in databases around the world, most of it isn't backed by any physical currency. Facebook wants its own currency because it would allow granular tracking and profiling like never before. What would banks gain from it ?

dharma1 7y ago
I can think of a few reasons 1) Geopolitical - if there was a widely accepted, regulated global currency that is relatively non-volatile, pegged on a basket of assets, I think many countries would gladly do cross-border trade in that rather than USD. I don't think Libra will be it, because it's perceived as being Facebook coin. But an effort from central banks could be it. 2) mainstream programmable money doesn't really exist, neither do microtransactions, or access to the financial system for many of the world's poor

sschueller 7y ago

The Swiss National Bank is hiring blockchain people. They may be planning a stable coin.

ian0 7y ago

>> I wonder why central banks don't issue digital currencies themselves? Because they already have one? And it comes with handy features such as being available in paper form, storable in a regular DB, relatively stable and manipulatable and easy for everyone to understand. And a whole host of other goodies gleaned out of 400 years of attempting to keep the gears moving while keeping economic implosion to the bare minimum.