Digital Currency News

For two decades, the digital currency paradigm was a largely fringe concept championed by cryptography advocates before the launch of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) in 2008, which heralded a new technological and social phenomenon. 

While the goal of cryptocurrencies is to provide a medium for global, peer-to-peer transaction settlement that preserves privacy and financial security, digital currencies more broadly encompass any digital form of money, including the more recent trend of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. 

Currently in development in China and other countries, these digital currencies may leverage blockchain technology for secure payments but with added capital controls and surveillance practices in stark contrast with the ethos of cryptocurrencies. 

The future of digital currencies is uncertain. Will CBDCs become the dominant form of digital cash adopted by the masses, or will people opt into a more open, secure, permissionless financial system in the form of Bitcoin and the crypto economy?