Central Bank Digital Currency

Recently, 2Tokens and DBC joined hands to foster tokenization in the Netherlands. Both organizations expect token technology to have a widespread impact on financial markets and on a wide variety of processes in which value is exchanged between parties. The collaboration is further specified with the launch of a use case on Central Bank Digital Currency. A round table session with DNB on this subject will be organized July 13^th (13:00 – 15:00).

We are inviting startups and scaleups to submit their ideas about the opportunities of CBDC as a smart-contract platform. You can send your ideas to info@dutchblockchaincoalition.org until the 29^th of June.

More information about the requirements for submitting your idea/use-case, can be found below.

On behalf of the CBDC Commission,

Koen Hartog (Dutch Blockchain Coalition)

Peter Verkoulen (Dutch Blockchain Coalition)

Alex Bausch (2Tokens)

Jelle Pol (2Tokens)

On the 21^st of April, ‘De Nederlandse Bank’ (DNB) published a study on ‘Digitaal centralebankgeld – Doelstellingen, randvoorwaarden en ontwerpkeuzes’. DNB is convinced that the use of CBDC opens a wide range of applications for consumers, as well as opportunities to broaden their own goals. 2Tokens and DBC will examine the market opportunities for CBDC in an exploratory first step and determine potential applications. The use-cases of DNB range from simple payments to using smart-contract with complex logic. On the 13^th of July, 2Tokens and DBC will organize a virtual round table around this topic. We want to offer you the opportunity to share your ideas about the opportunities (use-cases) of CBDC to serve as a smart-contract platform.

1. Share your idea/use-case about CBDC as smart-contract platform in a few slides and send this to info@dutchblockchaincoalition.org before the 29^th of June, 2020.
   1. Describe the added value of the smart-contract functionality of CBDC.
   2. Identify the main risks.
   3. Indicate the benefits of CBDC for you or your organization.
   4. Describe the business case for the token.
2. At the end of June/beginning of July, 2Tokens and DBC will discuss the ideas and, if necessary, contact the ideas-owners. The ideas will be collected and processed into a report that will be shared with DNB. It will be available online.
3. During the virtual round table sessions with DNB at the 13^th of July, the ideas will be shared with DNB. A maximum of 3 organizations (startups/scaleups) will be invited to present their use-case during this session.
4. The selected use-cases will be analyzed with the 2Tokens Finance Roadmap, the Token Taxonomy Framework (TTF), and the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) framework, ITC.

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a credit in euro’s that can be used by Dutch households and companies. DNB sees several opportunities in CBDC. It could serve as back-up for cashless payments, promote diversity in the payment market, and potentially increase the efficiency of cross-border payments. CBDC can also contribute to the confidence in the monetary system by continuing to guarantee substitution between private and public money in the future. If the Euro system decides to experiment with CBDC, DNB wants to play a pioneering role.

The goal of this study for DNB is to inform current policy discussions about CBDC, both at a national level as well as on a European level. The introduction of CBDC could mean a complete reform of the monetary system, affecting users, the financial system, and the tasks and objectives of DNB, which are difficult to predict in advance. The impact on society of such a reformation, demands a broad social discussion within the Netherlands and Europe.

Link to the study: Digitaal centralebankgeld.

In this study, DNB identifies various design choices. We focus on the first design choice, which lies in the spectrum between simple payments and the full application of smart contracts with complex logic. An advantage of only offering simple payments, is that is will be easier to make the CBDC system full functional with the current infrastructure. Furthermore, it is probably cheaper and easier to develop and easier to secure, because it needs a simpler infrastructure. In contrast, a system with smart contracts with complex logic could increase the demand for CBDC, offering opportunities to reduce transaction costs. In this way, it contributes to more diversity and innovation in the payment market. It is also more future proof: it keeps the options of incorporating new technologies open in the future.

Example of design choice: Technical opportunities