The best of both worlds. An analysis by Bybit Insights observes that central banks are now studying several innovations popularized by crypto: instant settlement, tokenized ledgers, conditional payments, and interoperability. The goal is not to adopt Bitcoin or public blockchains. It is to modernize financial infrastructures while keeping central bank money at the core of the system. Institutions are thus retaining the architecture without adopting the accompanying decentralized monetary model.
The first project concerns atomic settlement. The two parties of a transaction, for example, the delivery of a security and its payment, are executed simultaneously or canceled together. This mechanism reduces the risk that a counterparty defaults between the two operations.
Programmability then allows for automating certain payments: payment of a coupon, margin call, or release of funds after a delivery. However, it is important to distinguish conditional payment from programmable money. In the first case, the operation obeys agreed conditions. In the second, the issuer could limit the use of the money according to location, date, or product purchased.
The ECB excludes this second possibility for the digital euro, which must remain usable freely like cash. However, it is testing conditional payments that are automatically executed when predefined criteria are met.
The Bank for International Settlements primarily promotes these innovations in wholesale markets. Its Agorá project brings together seven central banks and private institutions around a platform sharing central bank reserves and tokenized commercial deposits. The Pine project has, on its side, demonstrated that smart contracts could automate monetary policy operations.
The BIS envisions a "unified register" bringing together central bank reserves, tokenized deposits, and public bonds. It remains critical of stablecoins, which it accuses of not sufficiently guaranteeing the uniqueness of money, the elasticity of supply, and the integrity of the system.
Its model favors tokenized deposits: traditional bank money recorded on a programmable ledger, but still issued by a supervised bank. This approach retains the protections and credit mechanisms of the current banking system.
Europe is moving in this direction with Pontes, which aims to connect platforms using DLT technology to the Eurosystem's settlement infrastructures, and Appia, intended to build a European market for tokenized assets. Switzerland is already using a wholesale CBDC to settle real transactions on SIX Digital Exchange as part of the Helvetia project, extended until June 2028.
For the general public, the ECB plans a pilot of the digital euro in the second half of 2027 and aims for a potential issuance in 2029, subject to the adoption of European regulation.
Finally, the United States is following a different path. A decree from January 2025 prohibits federal agencies from developing a CBDC, while the GENIUS Act regulates private stablecoins. Two strategies are thus emerging: modernizing bank money around central banks or entrusting innovation to regulated private issuers.
Central banks are therefore not copying crypto itself. They are recovering mechanisms capable of accelerating and automating exchanges while refusing to relinquish control over money and final settlement. Not foolish, the wasp.
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