The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that with the rise of U.S.-dollar-backed stablecoins, many in government assume they must respond with a state-run central bank digital currency alternative. The Post's guest columnist Alex Tapscott writes that in Canada, that assumption is unfounded.
While most opponents of CBDCs focus on privacy issues and government overreach -- they oppose money as a new form of surveillance technology, as it has become in a few digitally advanced states. A Canadian digital dollar would simply arrive too late and prove less useful than private-sector alternatives already in development. Canada has already seen the launch of a stablecoin from a regulated financial institution in the private sector: Tetra Digital Group's CADD.
In a world of open, programmable financial networks, a state-run system risks looking less like the future of money and more like digital wallpaper.
It's certainly possible, as advocates suggest, that a CBDC would reduce friction in the system and drive efficiencies for banks and businesses. But implicit in that view is that governments and incumbents -- such as the country's largest banks -- should control the next generation of financial infrastructure.
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