It is hard to imagine that just two years ago, the general discourse around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, was mainly focused on the potential and possibility of issuing them. Even in 2019, the question was about whether we need state-owned cryptocurrencies, with only 70% of central banks worldwide studying the potential of issuing a CBDC, according to a survey published by the Bank for International Settlements at the beginning of 2019. But this year, everything is indeed different. 2020 started with a major event within the financial world: the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the WEF released …
There is an old saying in China: “Building the road is the first step to becoming rich.” Asian countries use infrastructure to boost the economy, and China is probably the most aggressive one — its annual average infrastructure spending is one of the highest at 8.3% of its gross domestic product from 2010 to 2015, according to data from Statista. In the last two decades, China has built the most highways and high-speed railways, and it has now decided to extend the infrastructure development to a digital dimension. China’s “new infrastructure” plan includes blockchain technology, 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud …
Crypto is a place where everything changes faster than in any other industry, and seeing as it was born in the age of the internet, this is quite fitting. Today, China is leading the global digital asset initiative. The train of innovations seems to go faster as the digital yuan (also referred to as DCEP) has fueled rapid development in the field of distributed ledger technology. Instead of wallowing in a swamp of regulatory uncertainty, the Chinese government shifted its attention to benefits. The Chinese have not wasted time, and despite being the country where the new coronavirus started and …
Today, the relationship between China and the United States is one of escalating competition. On Oct. 23, 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Libra. Zuckerberg and members of Congress had much to disagree on. One consensus that did emerge, however, was concern regarding China’s digital currency project. Zuckerberg noted: “While we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn’t waiting. China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months.” Building on this, the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy recently discussed the need …
A cryptocurrency researcher and former CIA analyst believes the United States government’s relatively slow start on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) development may result in it losing grip on controlling the global financial system. Yaya Fanusie, the policy head at the crypto advocacy group the Crypto Council for Innovation explained in a Feb. 28 Bloomberg interview that sanctioned states are looking to transact on financial infrastructure that isn’t controlled or heavily influenced by the U.S. in order to move funds more freely cross-borders. If the U.S. continues to sit on the “sidelines” and lag behind on CBDC adoption, Fanusie believes …