Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC): The Technical Breakdown • John Davies & Lars Hupel
Feb 2, 2024
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John Davies and Lars Hupel discuss the technical aspects and potential of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). They explore programming languages and ISO standards in the financial world, challenges of interconnecting services in a microservices architecture, ISO 202 deployment, and the integration and transfer of technology in digital payment systems.
CBDCs are distinct from cryptocurrencies and are being explored by central banks to bring physical cash into the digital world, emphasizing the importance of explaining their technology and potential benefits.
CBDCs enable offline payments and offer advantages over traditional payment systems such as interoperability between different payment rails and the elimination of settlement steps.
Deep dives
The Role of Evangelists in Central Bank Digital Currencies
Lars Hupl, a chief evangelist at GND, explains his role in promoting digital currencies, specifically central bank digital currencies (CBDC). He emphasizes that CBDCs are not the same as cryptocurrencies and that they are investigated by central banks to bring physical cash into the digital world. Lars also highlights the importance of explaining the technology behind CBDCs and their potential benefits, both from an economic and a technical perspective.
The Language Matter in Cloud Native Payments
John Davis, CTO of Vellow Payments, discusses the role of programming languages in cloud native payments. He mentions that while traditional languages like Java are still prevalent in the financial world, the language choice becomes less significant when containerizing applications. John explains that as long as the applications are containerized and compatible with existing infrastructure, banks are adaptable to different languages. He also notes the importance of ISO standards and the need for interconnectivity and communication between different services.
Advantages of Central Bank Digital Currencies
The conversation shifts to the advantages of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) over traditional payment systems. Lars highlights how CBDCs enable offline payments by allowing users to download tokens onto physical wallets. He also mentions that non-banks can offer wallet services for CBDCs since they are backed by central banks and do not require extensive regulation. The interoperability between different payment rails and the elimination of settlement steps are additional benefits of CBDCs. The discussion also touches on CBDC implementations in African countries and the payment options they enable.
DESCRIPTION John Davis and Lars Hupel explore the distinctiveness of CBDC compared to cryptocurrencies. They emphasize the technical underpinnings, architecture, and practical applications of CBDC, focusing on its potential to facilitate offline payments, enhance security, and ensure efficient, instantly settled transactions. The conversation underscores the flexibility of CBDC and its coexistence with existing payment methods, making it a compelling topic for tech-savvy individuals. In summary, this discussion offers technical audiences valuable insights into CBDC's technical foundations and its transformative potential in the digital payment landscape.