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Policy controversy
Central bank digital currency controlAtlas
Economy & Corporations · Central banking & currency
Competing accounts of whether retail CBDCs are primarily payment modernization tools, versus programmable money architectures enabling granular social and political control.
Open the caseTimeline
- 2020 · eventChina advances e-CNY pilots as a major retail CBDC reference case
- 2020 · popularizationPandemic-era digital payments debate widens CBDC public attention
- 2020 · document_releaseRBA bulletin on retail CBDC design considerations
- 2020-11 · document_releaseColumbia Law analysis of CBDCs and legal issues
- 2021 · amplificationBIS and major central banks publish joint CBDC foundational papers
- 2021-02 · document_releaseFed note on preconditions for general-purpose CBDC
- 2022 · amplificationNLC event framing CBDCs as government-control tools
- 2022 · document_releaseOFR working paper on central bank digital currency
- 2022-02 · document_releaseFed note on CBDC security considerations
- 2023 · document_releaseOECD report on CBDCs and democratic values
- 2023 · document_releaseResearch on eNaira interest and financial inclusion in Nigeria
- 2023 · investigationUK digital pound consultation and euro-area project materials expand design detail
- 2024 · mutationProgrammability and privacy become the dominant public control arguments
- 2024-04 · document_releaseRUSI commentary on CBDC conspiracy narratives