Abstract
Some 130 central banks around the world are experimenting with various levels of a central bank digital currency (“CBDC”), a digitized form of a sovereign-backed, national currency that is a liability of that country’s central bank. Unlike fiat currency, CBDCs are trackable and potentially subject to interference and even freezing by government authorities. CBDCs will affect citizens’ control over commerce, payments, and savings, and impact their privacy rights. The Chinese government has piloted, refined, and rolled out its own CBDC called the Digital Currency/Electronic Payment initiative (“DC/EP”), also known as the digital yuan or e-CNY. The Chinese government is far ahead of the governments of other countries in terms of integrating its CBDC into its national economy, and this new system has the potential to disrupt the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The United States government, on the other hand, has been slow to even pilot a digital dollar, as there is much resistance to potential government control of consumer behavior and concern over privacy rights. This Article explores these trends in the context of the decoupling of the world’s two largest economies.
Recommended Citation
James M. Cooper,
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD: CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES IN THE ERA OF DECOUPLING THE WORLD’S TWO LARGEST ECONOMIES,
19 Wash. J. L. Tech. & Arts
(2024).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjlta/vol19/iss3/1
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