Should Central Banks Use Distributed Ledger Technology and Digital Currencies to Advance Financial Inclusion?

The Banque de France, in 2017, was the first central bank to develop a decentralized register based on the MADRE blockchain register.56 Later in 2018, the scope of the project was limited to decentralizing the Creditor Identifier allocation mechanism by “involving banks in verifying the conditions to be met by the creditor and in maintaining the register including these identifiers.”57 This mechan. [...] The Central Bank of Brazil conducted a program to investigate potential use cases for DLT.60 The Bank identified four applications for further investigation: Identity Management Systems, Local Currency Payment Systems, the Agreement on Reciprocal Payments and Credits, and the Alternative System for Transactions Settlement.61 Through its research, the Central Bank of Brazil concluded that although. [...] Legal certainty and transparent regulation can help provide clarity in the financial services industry65; clarity may underpin financial inclusion by addressing relevant risks, protecting consumers, and fostering innovation and competition.66 The Federal Department of Finance, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, and the Federal Office of Justice created the prerequisites for examinin. [...] The European Central Bank’s (“ECB”) Governing Council announced their intention to advance work on the possible issuance of a digital euro in October 2020.121 The ECB’s motivations for developing the digital euro are protecting accessibility and safeguarding the Eurosystem from foreign digital money or the decline of cash.122 The digital euro would be introduced alongside cash and would be accessi. [...] The program ran for six months and was mainly used by affiliated merchants and for peer-to-peer transfers.138 The system allowed for instant settlement and did not require internet connection.139 The e-peso trial was considered a success: there were no technical issues, and the number of participating businesses and interested banks grew over time.140 At the conclusion of the trial in April 2018,.