One of the big consulting firms so-called Big 4, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) issued the 1st edition of the PwC Global CBDC (central bank digital currency) Index(1). PwC is one of the well-known consulting firms and their index is pretty insightful. Since I have become more and more interested in cryptocurrencies, I also became interested in CBDC (central bank digital currency) and how each country is researching to implement their CDBC and transform to the digital era. If we call Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) decentralized digital currencies, then CBDC is centralized digital currency as you can guess from the name. ｱ､ｿｯｶ(･ω･ゞ-☆
Decentralized digital currency vs. centralized digital currency
The index shows how each country has progressed its CBDC adoption in different regions and areas. The index suggests the two different rankings, Top 10 – Retail CBDC projects and Top 10 – Interbank or Wholesale CBDC projects.
Surprisingly, Bahamas comes the first place in the Top 10 – Retail CBDC projects, and Cambodia and Mainland China come to 2nd and 3rd place.
I just did not know that the Bahamas has been working on the project to implement CBDC and it is the most advanced nation in terms of developing the CBDC. In the ranking, I see many countries with a so-called big government like Mainland China (a communist country), Cambodia (a communist country), Sweden (a social-democratic country aka happy communist country lol). It is easy to imagine that these countries to implement CDBC as fast as possible before Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies become dominant and widely accepted in the market.
LUNA and AVAX
But, interestingly South Korea (democratic country) and Turkey (democratic country as well) come to 9th and 10th place in the category. I have been to Korea before and the country is pretty digitalized in many ways (free Wi-Fi at the airport is awesome! And, credit cards are accepted nearly everywhere in the country) so that I believe that CDBC will be accepted very smoothly after the government introduces it. But, at the same time, I am curious that how Terra token (LUNA), which is a very popular cryptocurrency in South Korea will get affected by CDBC introduction in the future. They have already introduced a mobile app called Chai, which allows users to purchase goods using their cryptocurrencies through the app. It is pretty cool, isn´t it? I want to try it out when I visit South Korea next time! Σd=(･ω-`○)ｸﾞｯ♪
And, for Turkey, they have AVAX (Avalanche). AVAX is an ETH-like platform that was invented by a Turkish-American computer scientist, Emin Gün Sirer who is a professor from Cornell University. There are many ardent followers of AVAX in Turkey and I was also thinking that AVAX will grow rapidly in Turkey. According to Statista, Turkey is the fourth largest crypto-friendly nation in the world, which shows that 16% of the total population used or owned cryptocurrencies. Wow! It is an amazingly high number of people who are already familiar with cryptocurrencies in Turkey. I was having big hope that cryptocurrency will be widely used in Turkey and become a leader of the digital nation in the area, however, recently Turkey bans crypto payments…(5) It seems that as cryptocurrencies become more and more popular and widely accepted by people, then the government intervene and put regulations on it. It has started happening already every part of the world.
The battle between decentralized and centralized continues…
I am curious how CDBC (centralized digital cash) and Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (decentralized digital cash) will grow in the future and how they coexist or the countries will put stricter regulations on the use of cryptocurrencies. It would be nice if you share your thoughts and educate me if you have any ideas about which direction the world is heading. I am a fan of decentralized cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, but I also feel that more and more countries are seriously putting more serious regulations on cryptocurrencies nowadays. Well, we will see!
Mizuo – April, 2oth. 2021.
References
1) PwC CBDC global index, 1st Edition
2) CoinDesk – Terra
https://www.coindesk.com/terra-stablecoin-chai-anchor-ethereum-bridge
3) Chai – Terra (dapp)
4) Ava Labs (AVAX, Avalanche)
5) Reuters - Bitcoin tumbles after Turkey bans crypto payments citing risks
6) Emin Gun Sirer (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emin_G%C3%BCn_Sirer
