Central Banks’ Digital Currencies: World Trends and Prospects in Ukraine

Abstract

The scientific article is aimed to generalize the basic concepts of CBDC emission, based on existing world experience and substantiation of the prerequisites for safe and effective implementation of CBDC in Ukraine. The paper substantiates the causal relationships between the nature and strength of the CBDC's influence on the economic and financial spheres of the country's economy; the level of demand for the new financial instrument by businesses and individuals, as well as the model of CBDC implementation (retail or wholesale). It is proposed to structure the factors that determine the level of CBDC demand among different economic agents according to the resource-oriented approach and to distinguish the following groups: economic (CBDC value fixing method, its liquidity level; possibility of adjusting instant payments; internal characteristics of CBDC); institutional (availability of CBDC’s circulation infrastructure; methodology for CBDC transactions accounting); socio-and-psychological (level of trust in the central bank); cognitive (level of digital and financial literacy of citizens; depth of society digitalization) and legal (legislative standardization of digital currencies). It has been accomplished a comparative analysis of the world experience of digital currency regulation in terms of American, Asian and European markets, using the following criteria: the status of digital currencies in the country; prospects for the introduction of CBDC; legalization of digital currencies. Particular attention is paid to the systematization of the characteristics of the main national CBDC projects by central banks around the world. It is proved that the threats of CBDC implementation should be considered in terms of the following sources of their occurrence: technological; those arising from cybersecurity violations; those that influence the implementation of monetary policy; those that can disrupt financial stability. Regarding the prospects for the introduction of the digital currency of the central bank in Ukraine, the possible scenarios of the consequences of the depth of CBDC implementation on the state of the monetary system are substantiated. It is proved that in order to make an informed decision on the feasibility of CBDC in Ukraine, in addition to such a basic thing as legalization and creation of a full-fledged regulatory environment for digital currencies, it is important for the National Bank of Ukraine to determine the the model of e-hryvnia’s project realization (retail or wholesale); develop and actively implement CBDC promotion policy; develop cryptocurrency accounting standards; create a favorable institutional environment to promote the development of cryptocurrency circulation infrastructure, including the CBDC’s.

Central Bank Digital Currency (Cbdc) as a Third Form of Money: Key Risks and Development Directions

“…There are no single CBDC standards and models in the world. The basic criteria that can be used to classify CBDC into separate types are [13]:…”