Can somebody ELI5 how the digital euro is different to the money I have on my accout right now and with which I pay digitally most of the time? The article didn’t really explain it for me…
Don’t think the previous explanation is quite right.
Yes, the money in your account (aka commercial bank money) is a debt that the bank owes you, payable in cash (central bank money). The banks need to borrow cash from the ECB to make good on their debts. Only the ECB is allowed to literally print cash.
Central bank money is, by law, what you can pay debts with. It’s not backed by anything. It’s what backs other things.
The banks create the commercial bank money simply by going into debt, but they are limited by the fact that they have to borrow cash to make good on that debt. The ECB raises the interest rates at which they lend out cash, if the banks create too much money and create inflation. It lowers the interest rates to encourage the banks to create more money for investments or consumer spending.
1 Problem: People use less and less cash. If people don’t want cash anymore -> infinite money glitch. This is easily fixed without a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
2 Problem: Banking crises. What happens when a bank can’t pay its debt? Until the early 20th century, that meant that your money was gone. In the wake of the crisis that triggered The Great Depression, this was fixed with mandatory deposit insurance and other legislation.
You still have the problem that our payment infrastructure - vital for the day-to-day economy - relies on banks being able to make good on their debts. In the US, retail and investment banks had to be separated by law (Glass–Steagall Act). This provision was repealed in 1999. This is often argued to have contributed to the problems around the 2007-2008 banking crisis.
If the ECB were to take over the payment infrastructure, it would be safe, no matter what happens to the banks. This may be not nearly enough to actually deal with banking screw-ups, though.
I took a very long time to get it as well, I think governments are doing an awful job explaining it.
So cash is physical paper which signifies debt to you backed by the government. Your money on your bank account is backed by your bank. A CBDC would be like a bank account, but directly backed by the govt, so I imagine all fees are paid from your taxes, and I imagine you can pay in a shop with your ID card. The point is that then all cash can go away, the government does not print money by printing it, it does it by increasing a number in a database table, and pays its obligation digitally.
Proponents of it talk of cutting the costs of actually printing money and decreased crime since you can no longer pay people “under the table”.
Opponents of it talk of governments getting complete control over your finances.
They fear that govs could get control over your finances opposed to a handful of illegal people who pay each other under the table.
Is that really the problem?
A handful of people who don’t deny getting money from the gov because of bad weather that ruined their warehouse, because a bad finance year because of lockdown, because of they are unemployed, almost free education and health system, etccc
Thanks, this helps a bit. But I hve a follow up question if you don’t mind: how is it backed exactly? I understand the gold standard (money being backed by gold) is not really applied anymore? Or is it just to a point?
It’s all just debt. So when they got rid of the gold standard, we went from “this debt we have to you is secured by our stockpiles of gold” to “trust me bro, we won’t go bankrupt”. It would be the same with a CBDC.
Basically the digital Euro would be secured by the fact is if it wasn’t secured, the Eurozone would collapse, so states and the EU at large is interested in staying solvent.
Can somebody ELI5 how the digital euro is different to the money I have on my accout right now and with which I pay digitally most of the time? The article didn’t really explain it for me…
Don’t think the previous explanation is quite right.
Yes, the money in your account (aka commercial bank money) is a debt that the bank owes you, payable in cash (central bank money). The banks need to borrow cash from the ECB to make good on their debts. Only the ECB is allowed to literally print cash.
Central bank money is, by law, what you can pay debts with. It’s not backed by anything. It’s what backs other things.
The banks create the commercial bank money simply by going into debt, but they are limited by the fact that they have to borrow cash to make good on that debt. The ECB raises the interest rates at which they lend out cash, if the banks create too much money and create inflation. It lowers the interest rates to encourage the banks to create more money for investments or consumer spending.
1 Problem: People use less and less cash. If people don’t want cash anymore -> infinite money glitch. This is easily fixed without a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
2 Problem: Banking crises. What happens when a bank can’t pay its debt? Until the early 20th century, that meant that your money was gone. In the wake of the crisis that triggered The Great Depression, this was fixed with mandatory deposit insurance and other legislation.
You still have the problem that our payment infrastructure - vital for the day-to-day economy - relies on banks being able to make good on their debts. In the US, retail and investment banks had to be separated by law (Glass–Steagall Act). This provision was repealed in 1999. This is often argued to have contributed to the problems around the 2007-2008 banking crisis.
If the ECB were to take over the payment infrastructure, it would be safe, no matter what happens to the banks. This may be not nearly enough to actually deal with banking screw-ups, though.
I took a very long time to get it as well, I think governments are doing an awful job explaining it.
So cash is physical paper which signifies debt to you backed by the government. Your money on your bank account is backed by your bank. A CBDC would be like a bank account, but directly backed by the govt, so I imagine all fees are paid from your taxes, and I imagine you can pay in a shop with your ID card. The point is that then all cash can go away, the government does not print money by printing it, it does it by increasing a number in a database table, and pays its obligation digitally.
Proponents of it talk of cutting the costs of actually printing money and decreased crime since you can no longer pay people “under the table”.
Opponents of it talk of governments getting complete control over your finances.
They fear that govs could get control over your finances opposed to a handful of illegal people who pay each other under the table. Is that really the problem? A handful of people who don’t deny getting money from the gov because of bad weather that ruined their warehouse, because a bad finance year because of lockdown, because of they are unemployed, almost free education and health system, etccc
deleted by creator
Thanks, this helps a bit. But I hve a follow up question if you don’t mind: how is it backed exactly? I understand the gold standard (money being backed by gold) is not really applied anymore? Or is it just to a point?
It’s all just debt. So when they got rid of the gold standard, we went from “this debt we have to you is secured by our stockpiles of gold” to “trust me bro, we won’t go bankrupt”. It would be the same with a CBDC.
Basically the digital Euro would be secured by the fact is if it wasn’t secured, the Eurozone would collapse, so states and the EU at large is interested in staying solvent.
This is great, you really dumbed it down for me, lol. Thanks!