Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about digital currencies issued by central banks.

We'll look at the different design choices and examine the potential benefits and risks of such crypto currencies.

Want to know more? Stay with us.

Soon, carrying a few coins in your pocket or currencies. Want to know more? Stay with us.

Soon, carrying a few coins in your pocket or wallet will be an act of the past.

You bet, and as people abandon cash for other online tap and pay or contactless forms of payment and cryptocurrencies continue their explosive growth, central banks have begun to explore

the possibility of issuing digital currencies themselves.

Now there are several ways of doing this. Central bank digital currencies could be limited

to transactions between banks. They could be issued as a new digital means of payment to the general public

and coexist with bank money and cash.

Or banks could opt for a more hybrid solution.

They could also be account or token-based, with both options having advantages and disadvantages.

Although at the moment, account-based systems are generally viewed as more secure.

So what would be the main benefits and risks of central bank digital currencies?

One of the potential benefits of such currencies is that they could alleviate the problem

of concentration

of the payments infrastructure, as well as its vulnerability to loss of confidence.

But there are more.

Here's Angeloz Delivorias from the European Parliamentary Research Service.

Indeed, many other potential advantages have been identified by researchers and academia. For example,

they could execute payments quicker and cheaper. They could discourage illicit activity in the shadow

...