Block Network

Sweden’s central bank just released a massive report on central bank digital currencies.
Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, took a 98-page deep dive into central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, referencing the country’s own such asset — the e-krona. “The second issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review in 2020 has a special theme, namely central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the e-krona,” Riksbank’s June 18, 2020 report said in an initial note to readers. Sweden’s interest is not newIn December 2019, Sweden unveiled intentions for a pilot program around its e-krona, in collaboration with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture. The new report from the country’s central bank referred to its 2018 Economic Review detailing the e-krona and its progress. “Riksbank has since continued to delve into various aspects of CBDC, both from an analytical and a practical perspective,” the 2020 report said. “Some of this work is summarized in this issue.” The new edition addresses a number of CBDC aspectsRiksbank’s 2020 Economic Review includes reasoning behind a Swedish CBDC, listing monetary issues in the country, as well as other drivers. The report also covered other points of consideration, including inquiry on such a currency’s necessity, competition and other aspects. The review only includes one direct reference of blockchain, seen in a footnote on page 89, which reads:”An open DLT network is associated to several disadvantages; every transaction must be verified by every participant (cf. blockchain) in a time and resource consuming manner. The responsibility for the Riksbank regarding AML, KYC & CTF could be indefinite. Fraud and cyber-attacks are hard to prevent in an open network.”The report does, however, mention distributed ledger technology, or DLT, several times. After coronavirus measures took flight in March, the U.S. proposed a digital dollar, although such a dollar did not include blockchain or DLT. Cointelegraph reached out to Riksbank for additional details, but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.