Literature Review of Digital Currencies

Since a Facebook-led association announced the Libra whitepaper in June 2019, major countries around the world have accelerated research and regulation on digital currencies. There have been deepening discussions on how digital currencies will impact global monetary and payment systems, the financial system, and monetary and financial regulatory policies. Particularly, international financial organizations and central banks have put more effort into studying central bank digital currencies (CBDC). This chapter is a literature review of digital currencies, including categorization of digital currencies and their development, the design of CBDC and the attitudes of major countries towards it, and the impacts of CBDC on central banks and commercial banks.