瞿宛文的部落格The Politics of Money
Plus: Monetising Exhaust Fumes, Remutualisation, Bank Lending
Marc Rubinstein, Oct 30, 2020
https://netinterest.substack.com/p/the-politics-of-money
So what is a central bank digital currency? It’s electronic, it exists as a digital object, and it’s backed by a central bank. So it’s like cash, except it’s electronic; and it’s like Bitcoin, except it’s central bank backed.
If it sounds a bit abstract that’s because it is. Central bank digital currencies aren’t yet in wide circulation. But in China, they’ve started testing them. Earlier this month 50,000 residents in the city of Shenzhen were each given RMB200 in digital currency in a kind of helicopter money lottery. Two million people applied to take part and the successful few were credited the money in an app-based digital wallet, with scope to spend it in over 3,000 local retail outlets. This follows pilot schemes in what now amounts to four cities across the country.