Central bankers around the world are sweating (and easily denigrated) when they see the growing success of Bitcoin (BTC). Their solution is a permanent headlong rush to release their own central bank digital currency (MNBC) as quickly as possible in an attempt to block the widespread adoption of the king of cryptos.
MNBCs to counter the rise of Bitocin
In an effort to keep Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies from gaining a foothold, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) is going all out to develop its own central bank digital currency (MNBC or CBDC in English).
The city’s central bank is launching a global competition, called the Global CBDC Challenge, to find viable solutions for the issuance of a retail MNBC.
The competition is being launched in partnership with a plethora of international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which have distinguished themselves in recent weeks by being very hostile (not to mention threatening) towards El Salvador and its decision to make Bitcoin a legal tender.
Technology players will also be supporting this race to the CBM, such as MasterCard, Amazon Web Services and Hyperledger.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and so are CBMs
The goal of the Global CBDC Challenge is to bring forth a digital currency that will have:
“(have) the potential to increase payment efficiency, improve financial inclusion, and support the overall movement to digitize the economy. “
For this, not only will MAS provide “expert advice” to the 15 finalists of the competition, but also a S$50,000 (approximately US$37,000) award to the 3 winners of the challenge.
“Central banks around the world are actively exploring the project of issuing digital currencies and are facing a wide range of policy and technological challenges. Through the Global CBDC Challenge, MAS hopes to encourage communities of innovators around the world to develop and present solutions that can maximize the potential of CBDM (…) in line with the core mandate of central banks, namely monetary stability”
Sopnendu Mohanty, Head of FinTech Branch at MAS
Interested contestants should submit their applications for the Global CBDC Challenge by July 23, 2021.
All around the globe, central bankers are rushing to create their own digital currency, which will obviously remain under their sole control. Meanwhile, the reason for all the excitement (panic?), namely Bitcoin, is gradually conquering various economic sectors, where it is increasingly accepted as a means of payment.
