Financial inclusion, accessible services and the unbanked are standard talking points in many conversations about crypto. But, the details may remain somewhat fuzzy — the people who talk about crypto are generally those already inside the financial system. There are people who are actively working to increase financial inclusion and access to services for the vast number of people who are unbanked or underserved.
CBDC for the people
Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) will serve different purposes in different places. In economies where individuals have moved away from high levels of cash usage, like those of the United States and the United Kingdom, there will be relatively little retail demand for CBDC, but there are places where cash is in short supply and CBDC can serve to increase basic opportunities for prosperity and economic growth.
nChain works with central banks to facilitate the use of CBDC through its Digital Cash product. nChain director of commercial and strategy, Simit Naik — who has experience working in West Africa — told Cointelegraph that CBDCs in that region should “ensure continued access to an inclusive and stable form of central bank money for citizens, when physical cash usage is declining.”
Having access only to physical cash limits people to the most basic forms of transaction. A CBDC would provide entry into the digital economy and introduce new business models by supporting micro- and nano-payments. Access to broadband to participate in the digital economy would be rare, but mobile phone penetration and connectivity are “far greater” than one might expect, Naik assured. According to the GMSA — a mobile communications association — there were 5.3 billion unique mobile subscribers in the world as of the second quarter of 2022.
A CBDC can save central banks money and time by providing real-time access to data to inform monetary policy. A typical implementation of the nChain Digital Cash product would be for the…
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