While a digital national currency does have the potential to mitigate key financial issues, we cannot ignore the democratic risks such a currency could introduce without safeguards.
One missed opportunity is that the digital dollar doesn’t seem to circumvent the need for a private bank account. We currently have to have those in order to participate in the payment processing system that the private banks partially underpin. In a digital dollar system, there isn’t a fundamental need for the private banks to act as intermediaries between Canadians and the BoC. If the digital dollar allowed this, then the private banks would have to offer additional value for depositing money with them, besides access to the payment processing system. Alas, last time I checked, that wasn’t the case. It is a Canadian tradition to not endanger the revenue streams of our big corporate darlings. Which isn’t totally lost on me, given how many people they employ. 🤷
One missed opportunity is that the digital dollar doesn’t seem to circumvent the need for a private bank account. We currently have to have those in order to participate in the payment processing system that the private banks partially underpin. In a digital dollar system, there isn’t a fundamental need for the private banks to act as intermediaries between Canadians and the BoC. If the digital dollar allowed this, then the private banks would have to offer additional value for depositing money with them, besides access to the payment processing system. Alas, last time I checked, that wasn’t the case. It is a Canadian tradition to not endanger the revenue streams of our big corporate darlings. Which isn’t totally lost on me, given how many people they employ. 🤷