Traditional Financiers Predict Strong CBDC Emerge In Coming Years
According to François Villeroy de Galhau, the Governor of the Bank of France, the world could see a strong central bank digital currency emerge in the coming three years.
Galhau responded to a question during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday whether in the next five years’ time there would be “a central bank digital coin” being used on the daily basis (whether wholesale or retail) that would become “a superior system.”
He said:
“We have several experiments which are not very far from that. They are not yet generalized but they could be, let’s say in the next three years. It will go quicker on the wholesale side I guess because it raises less sensitive questions.”
Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) jumped in on the topic and said that in the next five years CBCDs would be quite present in the world.
They discussed existing CBDC projects like the Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria’s eNaira and China’s digital Yuan. Other panelists included the governor of the Bank of Thailand Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput and Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann.
Georgieva also mentioned during the panel the recent collapse of the Terra network, and said:
“When somebody promises you 20% returns on something that is not backed by any assets, how would we call normally call this thing? We would call it a pyramid.”
But she also pointed out that people should not be quick to judge everything in the “digital money” world as negative.
On the topic of stablecoins, she said:
“Some of them deserve the name because they’re backed by assets. And when they’re backed by assets one two one they’re really stable.
[…] I do feel for the people who lost money because part of the reason they lost money is not really being well educated on this new investment world.”
Georgieva also urged people to not miss out on the importance of the wider digital asset space, arguing that if properly regulated it could offer faster service, much lower cost and more inclusion, but as long as we separate apples from oranges and bananas, she concluded.
