Table of contents 1  INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 2  2  OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES 3  2.1 2.2  OPPORTUNITIES OF CBDC .................................................................................. 4 RISKS OF CBDC ................................................................................................. 7  3  ALTERNATIVES TO CBDC ............................................................................. 8  4  CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 10  1  Introduction  Ladies and gentlemen, The history of money is a story of its gradual dematerialisation from tangible objects to intangible computer code.
For example, there once was a time, on the Pacific island of Yap, when huge and heavy, often doughnut-shaped limestone discs were used as money. That is evidently a very tangible form of money, as you can see in places like the Bundesbank’s Money Museum where such a Yap stone is on display. Digital money, by contrast, is intangible.