Central bank digital currencies and the future of monetary sovereignty
Colin Chia, Eric Helleiner
Abstract
Initiatives to develop central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have accelerated dramatically across the world in the last few years. What is their significance for longstanding scholarly debates about the fate of monetary sovereignty in the digital age? Public officials themselves state that a central reason for these initiatives is to defend monetary sovereignty against threats emanating from the growth of private digital currencies, foreign CBDCs, and the displacement of state issued cash by private digital payments instruments. They (and others) highlight how CBDCs could even strengthen monetary sovereignty by bolstering financial inclusion as well as enhancing the state’s capacity to monitor and control monetary transactions and conduct monetary policy. In these ways, CBDC initiatives cast doubt on arguments that suggest the digital currency revolution necessarily challenges monetary sovereignty. However, critics of that line of argument also need to be cautious because CBDCs are already attracting much political opposition. Even if that opposition is overcome, CBDCs may be implemented in constrained ways or be unsuccessful in meeting their goals for other reasons. In short, CBDCs may hold the potential to defend and even strengthen monetary sovereignty, but it is far from clear whether this potential will be realised.