Knowledge base / History
CBDCs and the Next Stage of the Fiat Regime
The fiat credit system that began in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act and was completed in 1971 with the closure of the gold window operates today through a two tier money structure. The central bank issues base money (reserves and physical cash); commercial banks issue the deposit money that ordinary citizens actually use. That commercial bank intermediation layer has been, in practice, the last buffer between central bank policy decisions and the contents of a household’s checking account. A central bank digital currency (CBDC), in its retail form, removes that buffer.
This chapter documents what CBDCs are, where each major project stands in 2026, the programmability features already demonstrated in pilots, and the alternatives that have emerged in parallel.
What a CBDC Is, Precisely
A central bank digital currency is a digital liability of the central bank itself, denominated in the national unit of account, held directly by end users (retail CBDC) or restricted to financial institutions (wholesale CBDC). The BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures defines it in CPMI Paper 174 as “a digital form of central bank money different from balances in traditional reserve or settlement accounts” [1].
The distinction from existing electronic money is often glossed over:
| Money form | Issuer | Liability of | Direct claim on central bank | Programmable by issuer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical cash (banknotes) | Central bank | Central bank | Yes (bearer) | No |
| Bank reserves | Central bank | Central bank | Yes (banks only) | Limited |
| Commercial bank deposits | Commercial bank | Private bank | No (subject to bank solvency, deposit insurance up to a cap) | No (subject to AML rules) |
| Stablecoin (USDC, USDT) | Private issuer | Private issuer | No | Yes (issuer can freeze) |
| Retail CBDC | Central bank | Central bank | Yes (direct) | Yes (by design) |
Source for the categorisation: BIS, “Central bank digital currencies”, CPMI Paper 174, March 2018 [1]. BIS Innovation Hub overview at [2].
The novel property in the bottom row is the combination: a direct claim on the central bank (with no intermediating commercial bank to fail or to refuse a transaction) plus full programmability. Cash is a direct claim but not programmable. Commercial deposits are programmable in a limited sense but are claims against a private firm. A retail CBDC is the first money form in modern history that is both.
The 2026 Tracker
The Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker [3] is the standard public reference. Its 2026 figures show:
- Roughly 130+ jurisdictions, representing more than 98% of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC at some stage [3].
- Three retail CBDCs are live: the Bahamas Sand Dollar (October 2020), Nigeria’s eNaira (October 2021), and Jamaica’s JAM-DEX (July 2022) [3].
- The PBOC e-CNY is by a wide margin the largest pilot by transaction volume.
- Multiple G20 economies (eurozone, UK, India, Brazil, South Korea, Japan) are in advanced research or preparation phases.
| Country / bloc | Project name | Status (2026) | First pilot | Issuance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahamas | Sand Dollar | Live | 2019 | October 2020 [4] |
| Nigeria | eNaira | Live | 2021 | October 2021 [3] |
| Jamaica | JAM-DEX | Live | 2021 | July 2022 [3] |
| China | e-CNY (DCEP) | Large pilot, expanding | 2014 internal, 2019 public (Shenzhen) | Pilot, no formal nationwide launch [5] |
| Eurozone | Digital Euro | Preparation phase | Investigation Oct 2021 | Possible 2026 to 2028 [6] |
| United Kingdom | Digital Pound (“Britcoin”) | Consultation, design phase | Consultation 2023 | Decision pending 2025 to 2026 [7] |
| United States | (no retail CBDC project) | Research only; FedNow live as instant payments rail | FedNow July 2023 | Not committed [8] |
| India | Digital Rupee (e-Rupee) | Wholesale and retail pilot | 2022 | Live pilot [3] |
| Sweden | e-krona | Pilot, no decision | 2020 | None [3] |
| Switzerland | Project Helvetia (wholesale) | Production for tokenised settlement | 2020 | Wholesale only [2] |
| Brazil | Drex | Pilot | 2023 | Pilot [3] |
| Russia | Digital ruble | Pilot expanding | 2022 | Pilot, scheduled rollout [3] |
| Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hong Kong, Thailand | mBridge | Cross border wholesale, in production | 2021 | Live wholesale [2] |
The Atlantic Council Tracker maintains the full list and is updated quarterly [3].
The Chinese e-CNY: The Largest Live Pilot
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) began internal research on a digital currency in 2014. The first public pilot opened in Shenzhen in 2019, expanded to Suzhou, Chengdu, and the Xiongan New Area, and by 2022 covered 23 cities. The PBOC working group released a white paper, “Progress of Research and Development of e-CNY in China”, in July 2021 [5].
By PBOC reporting, cumulative e-CNY transactions in pilot zones reached 1.8 trillion yuan by mid 2024 [3]. Wallets are held by hundreds of millions of users in pilot regions, although active use is concentrated in subsidised programmes. The e-CNY is two tier (PBOC issues to authorised commercial banks, which distribute to users) but the underlying liability is the central bank’s, distinguishing it cleanly from ordinary digital yuan in commercial bank accounts.
Programmable features tested in Chinese pilots include:
- Expiry dates. The Suzhou pilot in late 2020 distributed e-CNY “red envelopes” with explicit expiry dates after which the tokens were redeemed back to the issuer. Shenzhen ran similar trials in 2021 [5]. A literal demonstration of “use it or lose it” money.
- Spending category restrictions. Some pilot distributions could be spent only at designated merchant categories.
- Geographic restrictions. Certain pilot tokens worked only inside the issuing city.
- Direct stimulus. The PBOC and local governments distributed e-CNY directly to citizen wallets without commercial bank intermediation.
These are not speculative future features. They are documented in PBOC pilot reports.
The Digital Euro
The European Central Bank announced the launch of the digital euro investigation phase in October 2021 [6]. The investigation phase concluded October 2023. The ECB Governing Council then launched the preparation phase (October 2023 to October 2025), focused on rulebook drafting and provider selection. As of 2026 the project sits in an extended preparation and decision phase, with a possible issuance window of 2026 to 2028 if the Governing Council and EU co legislators approve [6].
The European Commission’s June 2023 legislative proposal frames the digital euro as a complement to cash, with proposed safeguards for offline use and a “low value privacy mode” [6]. Holding limits in the proposed design are intended to prevent disintermediation of commercial banks (typical cap discussed: 3,000 euro per natural person). The Eurosystem’s stated motivation includes monetary sovereignty (against private stablecoins and foreign CBDCs), payment system resilience, and financial inclusion. The political concern, voiced inside the European Parliament and by some national central banks, is that a retail digital euro creates a single point of programmability, surveillance, and policy enforcement that does not exist with cash.
The United States: FedNow, Not a Retail CBDC
The Federal Reserve has not committed to a retail CBDC. Its CBDC FAQ page states explicitly that the Federal Reserve “would only proceed with the issuance of a CBDC with clear support from the executive branch and from Congress, ideally in the form of a specific authorising law” [8].
What the Fed launched in July 2023 is FedNow, an instant payments service [9]. FedNow is not a CBDC. It is a real time gross settlement rail that lets commercial banks clear payments 24/7 in seconds. The money moving over FedNow is still commercial bank deposit money; the central bank role is the settlement layer between banks. FedNow therefore preserves the two tier structure.
A January 2022 Federal Reserve discussion paper, “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation” [8], catalogued the trade offs of a US retail CBDC without recommending issuance. Executive Order 14178 (January 2025) explicitly prohibits federal agencies from establishing, issuing, or promoting a US retail CBDC, citing financial privacy and sovereignty concerns. As of 2026 there is no operational US retail CBDC and no scheduled launch; the legal landscape may change with a future administration.
The United Kingdom: The Digital Pound Consultation
HM Treasury and the Bank of England published the consultation paper “The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses?” in February 2023; consultation closed June 2023 [7]. The BoE/HMT response (2024) concluded that no decision had yet been made on issuance, that any digital pound would be a complement to cash (cash would not be removed), and that the design phase would continue through 2025 to 2026 [7].
Proposed UK design parameters include a holding limit (10,000 to 20,000 pounds per individual under discussion), private sector wallet providers (the BoE issues but private firms operate the user interface), and “no programming by the central bank or government of users’ money” stated as a design principle [7]. Whether the design principle survives a future crisis is the open question.
BIS Innovation Hub Projects
The BIS Innovation Hub coordinates technical research across central banks. Active and notable projects [2]:
- Project mBridge. Multi CBDC platform for cross border wholesale payments. Participants: HKMA, PBOC, Bank of Thailand, CBUAE, Saudi Central Bank (joined 2024). Live for production wholesale settlement since 2024. mBridge is the first multilateral CBDC bridge in production and reduces the need for the dollar correspondent banking layer in the participating corridors.
- Project Mariana. Cross border FX between wholesale CBDCs using automated market makers (DeFi technology applied to central bank money). Banque de France, MAS, SNB. Pilot completed 2023.
- Project Helvetia. Wholesale CBDC for tokenised securities settlement; SNB with SIX. In production for selected participants.
- Project Aurum. Retail CBDC technology stack research, BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong with HKMA. Two tier hybrid design.
- Project Tourbillon. Privacy preserving retail CBDC using cryptographic techniques (blind signatures). Concept stage.
- Project Agorá. Tokenised cross border payments, launched 2024 with seven major central banks (Banque de France for the eurosystem, BoJ, BoK, Banco de México, SNB, BoE, FRBNY) plus BIS.
The Federal Reserve’s participation in Agorá is notable given the executive ban on a US retail CBDC. Wholesale and cross border infrastructure work continues regardless of the retail decision.
Documented Programmability Features
The capability matrix below lists features that have been demonstrated, proposed in design papers, or formally regulated for in a live or piloted CBDC. “Demonstrated” means it has run in a real pilot with real users.
| Feature | Demonstrated in pilot | Proposed in design | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expiry date on tokens | China e-CNY (Suzhou 2020, Shenzhen 2021) [5] | Multiple academic papers | Demonstrated |
| Merchant category restriction | China e-CNY pilot subsidies [5] | Digital euro early drafts | Demonstrated |
| Geographic restriction | China e-CNY (city level pilots) [5] | None notable | Demonstrated |
| Direct central bank stimulus | China e-CNY (red envelopes) [5] | All retail CBDC papers | Demonstrated |
| Real time transaction reporting | Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria eNaira [4] | Default in most designs | Default |
| Account freeze without court order | Possible structurally in all retail CBDCs | Mitigations proposed | Capability present |
| Negative interest rate on retail balances | Discussed in BoE, ECB papers | ECB working paper series | Proposed |
| Holding limits | Digital euro, digital pound design [6] [7] | All major Western designs | Proposed |
| Tiered KYC (anonymous below threshold) | Bahamas Sand Dollar tier 1 [4] | Project Tourbillon, ECB privacy paper | Partial |
| Offline payments | Digital euro design, Bahamas Sand Dollar [4] [6] | Most designs | Partial |
| Programmable conditional spend | China pilots; smart contract layer | Digital euro investigation | Demonstrated (limited) |
Sources: PBOC e-CNY working papers [5], Central Bank of the Bahamas Sand Dollar regulations [4], ECB digital euro project page [6], BoE digital pound consultation response [7].
Privacy: What Changes With a CBDC
With physical cash, daily small transactions are practically anonymous: the issuer does not see them. With commercial bank deposits, the depositor’s bank sees transactions; the central bank sees aggregates. Reporting to authorities is by suspicion (SARs under AML legislation) or by threshold (cash transaction reports above country specific limits). Routine purchases of bread, coffee, and a bus ticket are not, in practice, reported to a central agency.
With a retail CBDC, by default, the central bank’s ledger contains every transaction. Mitigations exist on paper:
- Tiered KYC. Bahamas Sand Dollar runs a “Tier 1” anonymous wallet capped at low balance and transaction limits. Tier 2 requires identity verification [4].
- Anonymous below threshold. ECB working papers explore designs where micro transactions are not individually identified but aggregate sums are [10].
- Cryptographic privacy. Project Tourbillon (BIS) and the ECB’s working paper series explore blind signatures and zero knowledge proofs to allow auditable but private transactions [2] [10].
None of these designs is in production at scale in 2026. The default for live retail CBDCs (Sand Dollar, eNaira, JAM-DEX) is full ledger visibility to the issuing central bank. The ECB’s October 2024 working paper “Privacy in retail CBDC” notes that the privacy guarantees achievable in cryptographic designs depend on the cooperation of the issuer; the issuer can always reserve a backdoor [10].
The Control Question
Independent of whether a retail CBDC is issued for benign reasons, the following operational capabilities are structural to the design and present once the system exists:
- Freeze any individual account instantly without court order or commercial bank intermediation.
- Restrict spending to authorised goods, vendors, time windows, or locations.
- Apply negative interest rates directly to balances above a chosen threshold.
- Apply expiry dates to specific token issuances (“use it or lose it”).
- Add or subtract balance algorithmically based on policy decisions (direct stimulus, direct tax).
- Surveil the full transaction history of every wallet.
Whether these capabilities are used is a separate question from whether they exist. The historical pattern is that powers granted to states under crisis conditions tend to be used and remain on the books:
- 1933 US gold confiscation. EO 6102 (5 April 1933) required US citizens to deliver gold coin, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve under criminal penalty [11].
- 1933 German currency reform. Capital controls and exchange restrictions from 1933 onwards (see chapter 5).
- 1971 wage and price freeze. EO 11615, 15 August 1971, imposed by Nixon together with the closure of the gold window [12].
- 2022 Canadian Emergencies Act. Federal directive to freeze accounts associated with the Freedom Convoy protest, without court order, 14 to 23 February 2022 [13]. The point is not the merits of the protest; the point is that the operational capability was used.
A CBDC transforms each of those crisis powers from a process requiring legislation, executive orders, and commercial bank cooperation into an administrative action at a single console. The risk is structural; the safeguards in central bank design papers depend on political conditions remaining benign across decades.
Counter Mechanisms and Alternatives, 2026 State
Parallel to CBDC rollout, a set of counter mechanisms have grown into significant scale. The following table summarises their 2026 status. Sources are listed below.
| Asset / mechanism | Approximate 2026 scale | Confiscation risk | Programmability risk | Friction (transaction) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical gold (private holdings) | 30,000+ tonnes globally [14] | Precedent (US 1933) | None | High (storage, assay) |
| Central bank gold reserves | ~36,700 tonnes [14] | N/A (state held) | None | N/A |
| Bitcoin | Multi trillion USD market cap; 21 million coin cap [15] | Possible at custodian level; difficult for self custody | None at base layer | Low (digital) |
| Stablecoins (USDT, USDC, etc.) | $200 billion+ combined [3] | Yes (issuer can freeze) | Yes (issuer can freeze) | Low |
| Silver, platinum, palladium | Far smaller than gold by total monetary value | Less precedent than gold | None | High |
| Free banking (theoretical) | Not in production in any major jurisdiction | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Complementary currencies (WIR, Brixton, Berkshares) | Local, niche scale | Low | None | High (scope limited) |
| Gold backed digital tokens (PAXG, AAA) | Single digit billions USD | Issuer level only | Yes (issuer) | Low digital, plus redemption layer |
Physical Gold
Always available; subject to the 1933 confiscation precedent in the United States; settles outside any banking ledger. Aggregate above ground stocks per the World Gold Council are approximately 216,000 tonnes (end 2023); central bank reserves approximately 36,700 tonnes [14]. Largest official holders [14]:
| Country | Reserves (tonnes, approximate, 2024 to 2025) |
|---|---|
| United States | 8,133 |
| Germany | 3,355 |
| Italy | 2,452 |
| France | 2,437 |
| Russia | 2,300+ |
| China (acknowledged) | 2,100+ |
| Switzerland | 1,040 |
| Japan | 846 |
| India | 800+ |
| Netherlands | 612 |
Source: World Gold Council, IMF International Financial Statistics, central bank disclosures [14]. Russian and Chinese figures are widely held to understate true holdings.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin was created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. The genesis block (3 January 2009) embeds the headline “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, an explicit reference to the second round of UK bank bailouts following the 2008 financial crisis [15]. The white paper describes a fixed supply of 21 million coins, distributed by Proof of Work mining on a decentralised consensus network [15].
By 2026, Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is in the multi trillion USD range. Holdings are distributed across self custody (substantial share, measurement approximate), centralised exchanges (around 30% of supply, declining), ETFs (US spot ETFs approved January 2024, combined holdings past one million BTC during 2024 to 2025), corporate treasuries (MicroStrategy, Tesla, Block, plus a growing list), and sovereign holdings (El Salvador legal tender since 2021; Bhutan accumulated reserves; the United States holds significant seized inventories).
Bitcoin’s value proposition relevant to this chapter: a fixed supply asset with no central programmable layer, settling on a network that no single state or central bank controls. Self custody removes the issuer freeze risk that applies to stablecoins, ETFs, and CBDCs. The trade offs (volatility, energy use, key management responsibility, regulatory risk at custodian and on/off ramps) are documented in the Bitcoin literature.
Stablecoins
USD denominated tokens on public blockchains. The combined stablecoin float exceeds $200 billion in 2026, dominated by Tether (USDT, above $100 billion) and Circle (USDC, tens of billions), with smaller issuers DAI, FDUSD, and PYUSD [3]. The structural irony is that the largest non state issuance of “dollars” is now a private firm headquartered outside the United States. Stablecoins effectively operate as a digital eurodollar layer, settling cross border at internet speed. They are not CBDC alternatives in the privacy sense (issuers can and do freeze addresses on regulator request) but they are alternative rails competing with bank settlement. The US GENIUS Act framework and equivalent EU MiCA regulations are reshaping the issuer landscape through 2025 to 2026.
Other Monetary Metals, Free Banking, Complementary Currencies
Silver, platinum, and palladium are smaller markets than gold by total monetary value, with industrial demand affecting price independent of monetary considerations. Silver has the longest history as a circulating monetary metal (Spanish dollar, Maria Theresa thaler).
The free banking literature (Hayek, Denationalisation of Money, 1976 [16]; Selgin, The Theory of Free Banking, 1988; White, Free Banking in Britain, 1984) proposes commercial bank issuance redeemable in a hard money base, competing without a central bank monopoly. Historical examples include Scottish banking 1716 to 1845, the US “free banking era” 1837 to 1864, and Canadian banking pre 1935. No major modern jurisdiction operates a free banking regime.
Complementary currencies in production include the WIR Bank, Switzerland (founded 1934 by Werner Zimmermann and Paul Enz, operates a credit clearing system between Swiss SMEs, active in 2026 at hundreds of millions of CHF equivalent annual volume) and local currencies like the Brixton Pound, Berkshares (Massachusetts), and Chiemgauer (Bavaria). These show operational feasibility but have not scaled to systemic relevance.
Gold backed digital tokens (PAXG, AAA, Tether Gold) combine stablecoin convenience with metal backing; single digit billions USD market cap as of 2026.
Sovereign Hard Money Moves
Argentina under Milei (inaugurated December 2023) has discussed dollarisation and central bank abolition; implementation has been partial through 2024 to 2026. Russia continues significant state gold accumulation and partial non dollar trade settlement through BRICS development. El Salvador maintained Bitcoin legal tender (2021) and sovereign treasury accumulation. No G20 economy has implemented a full gold standard return as of 2026.
In distressed economies (Lebanon, Venezuela, Argentina historically, Zimbabwe), effective dollarisation occurs spontaneously as the failure mode when domestic currency credibility collapses. Russia in 2022 to 2026 demonstrated a partial gold to renminbi to ruble triangulation under Western financial sanctions.
The Public Discourse: Five Distinct Cases
Five public commentators frame the issues in different ways and reach different prescriptions. Each is documented here without endorsement.
- Lyn Alden. Author of Broken Money (2023). Frames the question through the history of money technology. Pragmatic on both Bitcoin and gold as plausible neutral reserve assets in a multipolar world.
- Saifedean Ammous. Author of The Bitcoin Standard (2018) and The Fiat Standard (2021). Bitcoin maximalist position within an Austrian economic framework; argues Bitcoin is the technologically superior heir to a sound money tradition extending from gold.
- Mike Maloney. Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver (2008) and the Hidden Secrets of Money series. Focus on monetary metals as the historic, recurring response to fiat debasement.
- Peter Schiff. Long standing gold and silver advocate; hostile to Bitcoin (rejects it as a non commodity).
- Andreas Antonopoulos. Mastering Bitcoin (2014) and The Internet of Money lectures (2016 to 2020). Technologist framing: Bitcoin as a neutral protocol layer, with emphasis on self custody and the political consequences of programmable money.
The five share a diagnosis of the post 1971 fiat regime as structurally inflationary and increasingly digitally surveilled. They differ on the remedy: gold, Bitcoin, both, neither, or institutional reform.
The 2026 Question
Two trends are running simultaneously, observable in real time:
- Toward CBDC, cashless, and KYC by default. Live retail CBDCs in Bahamas, Nigeria, and Jamaica; large pilots in China, India, Russia, Brazil; preparation phases in the eurozone and UK; cross border wholesale CBDCs in production via mBridge and Agorá. Cash use declining in much of Europe and Asia.
- Toward parallel hard money and self custody. Central bank gold purchases at multi decade highs through 2022 to 2024 [14], Bitcoin spot ETF approval in the US (January 2024), stablecoin float above $200 billion, sovereign Bitcoin accumulation (El Salvador, Bhutan), Russian and Chinese gold accumulation, and significant retail self custody adoption.
The race is not theoretical. It is happening over the same calendar months. The likely outcome is coexistence: programmable retail money for the bulk of citizens in most jurisdictions, and a parallel market in hard, non programmable assets for those who can hold them.
Why This Matters For Inflation
The connection back to the central thesis of this knowledgebase is direct.
A programmable retail CBDC removes the last buffer between central bank discretion and household savings. In the post 1971 regime, when policy turned toward stimulus, the channel ran through commercial banks: central bank balance sheet expansion, into bank reserves, into bank lending or sovereign debt purchases, into deposits, into spending. There were lags, frictions, sterilisations, and political vetoes along the chain. Those frictions show up in the historical inflation record as a delay between policy decision and consumer price effect of one to several years.
A retail CBDC compresses that chain. The central bank issues directly to wallets. If a future crisis prompts mass stimulus, spending mandates, and expiry, the inflation tax becomes faster and more direct, because the money cannot be saved (expiry), cannot be diverted to assets outside the spend categories (restrictions), and arrives in the wallet within hours of the policy decision. Conversely, every additional unit of perceived programmability raises the marginal value of assets sitting outside the programmable layer; that bid is observable in gold and Bitcoin price action 2020 to 2026, in central bank gold purchases at multi decade highs, in sovereign Bitcoin holdings, and in a stablecoin float above $200 billion that, while still dollar denominated, settles outside the bank ledger.
The 1913 act created the central bank that broke the gold standard’s discipline. The 1971 closure of the gold window completed the fiat regime. The 2020s rollout of CBDCs is the third structural step: from a fiat standard intermediated by commercial banks, to a programmable fiat standard in which the central bank can act on each citizen’s balance sheet directly. The earlier chapters document what the first two steps did to the price level over a century. The third step is in progress now, and its consequences for inflation will depend on whether the discretion the system grants is used.
Sources
[1] Bank for International Settlements, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, “Central bank digital currencies”, CPMI Paper 174, March 2018. https://www.bis.org/cpmi/publ/d174.htm
[2] BIS Innovation Hub project portal. https://www.bis.org/about/bisih.htm
[3] Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/
[4] Central Bank of the Bahamas, Sand Dollar regulations and project documentation. https://www.centralbankbahamas.com/
[5] People’s Bank of China, “Progress of Research and Development of e-CNY in China”, working group white paper, July 2021, plus subsequent PBOC reporting. https://www.pbc.gov.cn/
[6] European Central Bank, Digital Euro project page. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/
[7] Bank of England, The Digital Pound consultation and response. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound
[8] Federal Reserve, “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation”, January 2022, and CBDC FAQ. https://www.federalreserve.gov/cbdc-faqs.htm
[9] Federal Reserve, FedNow Service. https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow
[10] European Central Bank, working paper series, including “Privacy in retail CBDC” (2024). https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/working-paper-series/
[11] US Executive Order 6102, 5 April 1933. National Archives, Federal Register record.
[12] US Executive Order 11615, 15 August 1971. National Archives, Federal Register record.
[13] Government of Canada, Emergencies Act invocation 14 February 2022 to 23 February 2022; Public Order Emergency Commission report (Rouleau Commission), 2023.
[14] World Gold Council, Gold Reserves by Country, and IMF International Financial Statistics. https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-reserves-by-country
[15] Satoshi Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, 2008. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
[16] Friedrich A. Hayek, Denationalisation of Money: An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of Concurrent Currencies, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1976.
Wealth distribution context: World Inequality Database, https://wid.world
IMF working papers on CBDC: search at https://www.imf.org