While it appears that there is little mass movement towards central bank digitial currencies at this time, we do have some recent news articles related to an announcement by the IMF and The World Bank that they will explore blockchain technology in what Jim Rickards tells me is a "prototype" project that he has talked about in recent articles and interviews.
This appears to be an early stage project that will not focus on creating a monetary currency for now. Below are links to a couple of news articles on this project and some excerpts from each article.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cointelegraph.com
"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have jointly launched a private blockchain and a so-dubbed quasi-cryptocurrency, the Financial Times (FT) reports on April 12.
According to the newspaper, the asset called “Learning Coin” will be accessible only within the IMF and World Bank. The coin has no money value and thus is not a real cryptocurrency, the FT underlines."
"A recent report by the Financial Times has revealed that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have collaborated to launch a private blockchain network, which will enable “explorations and experimentations” into Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
In addition to that, both institutions have reportedly created a digital asset, dubbed the “Learning Coin,” based on their joint blockchain network.
The report claims that the Learning Coin was created as a tool to aid the institutions in their effort to better understand blockchain technology, including its function as an underlying technology for crypto assets."
Click here to read the full article in Blockonomi
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My added comments: Readers may ask if this news indicates that we should expect to see some kind of new global cryptocurrency from the IMF as a result of this project (an e-SDR for example). It's too early to know if anything like that might emerge from this project. This news makes it clear that the IMF does have interest in exploring blockchain technology and is obviously willing to commit time and resources to this project. For now, the project is not described as testing a new type of monetary currency, but rather testing blockchain technology in general as it may apply to a variety of potential uses.
The quote below from the first article linked above makes it clear that there is still much debate ongoing as to whether or not blockchain technology will bring about significant change inside the system any time soon:
"Meanwhile, a World Bank official expressed a more skeptical point of view. According to Aanchal Anand, a Land Administration Specialist in the bank’s Global Land and Geospatial Unit, there is too much hype over blockchain, which causes unrealistic expectations." (see more World Bank comments here).
On the other hand, IMF Director Christine Lagarde has spoken more encouragingly about the potential for both blockchain and distributed ledgers. In this recent CNCB intervew, she said this:
“I think the role of the disruptors and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever ... that is clearly shaking the system,” she said.
My take on the above is that it is consistent with what we have reported here that there continue to be a variety of ongoing studies related to blockchain technology inside the present system at central banks. Now we see this also includes the IMF. However, at this time, it does not appear that the majority of these institutions has moved beyond initial studies into making a decision to actually deploy either central bank digital currencies or any kind of new potential global reserve cryptocurrency. This is consistent with what Agustin Carstens stated in his recent speech on this topic that we covered here. So, this remains an area to monitor over time to see what actually happens.
The IMF did devote an entire panel discussion to Money and Payments in the Digital Age at the recent IMF spring meetings. Readers interested in viewing that discussion can do so just below (follow the link to view on Youtube).
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