Whitepaper: The Impact of Digital Currency on the Future of Payments
Money is the indispensable lubricant of our modern global economy and society. The emergence of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as a new form of money is therefore a development of profound importance. It will transform a key element upon which the livelihoods of peoples around the world depend. This is a global phenomenon. The engines of its progress are, in the early stages, being ignited by and within individual jurisdictions. From these starting points, its impact will extend beyond physical boundaries, to be felt across the emerging digital landscape.
This paper is one of the first of its kind to bring together subject matter experts across different disciplines, in understanding and assessing the foundations of this digital transformation of the British Pound and its associated infrastructure. The FPWG has drawn on the expertise of a wide range of specialists, from leading edge pathfinders in the private and public sectors, including academia, to seasoned practitioners in the world of extant payments infrastructure. Some are on the Whitechapel Think Tank’s Future of Payments Working Group itself; others are cited as independent experts.
The paper focuses on the UK’s implementation of a digital Pound; nevertheless, it is necessary to consider the global context in which that digital Pound will operate, and the requirements arising from this. The paper also acknowledges - and in some instances amplifies - the engagement of other initiatives and stakeholders around the world, in particular those charged with ensuring the stability of the financial system. The speech by the Governor of the Bank of England to the Brookings Institution on 3rd September 2020 is a reflection of that engagement.
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Authors
Antony Welfare (NEM Software), Geoff Goodell (UCL Center for Blockchain Technologies), Jane Gamble (Payment Horizons), Jannah Patchay (Markets Evolution), Nick Davies, Jeremy Wilson (Whitechapel Think Tank), Jim Ford (JR Payments Consulting), Lee Schneider (Block.one), Nikhil Vadgama (UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies), Phil Kenworthy (Payment Systems Consultancy), and Victoria Thompson (FourAid).
About the Whitechapel Think Tank
The Whitechapel Think Tank (WTT) is an independent, not-for-profit body created to represent and advance the global FinTech and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) community in the UK. Supported by the City of London Corporation and Innovate Finance, its mission is to accelerate the UK’s leading role in the financial services sector by directly supporting its stakeholders across the public and private sectors.
The WTT’s membership ranges from global financial institutions and seed- stage start-ups through to investors, professional services firms, regulators and government departments. By bringing together and connecting the most forward- thinking participants in financial services, the WTT, alongside Innovate Finance and the City of London, is helping to create a more informed, transparent, diverse and inclusive financial services sector in the UK.
With this objective in mind, and with an eye to the accelerating pace of developments in this space, the WTT created the Future of Payments Working Group (the FPWG) in early 2020. The FPWG consists of a sub-group of WTT members and external participants, including academic and other industry participants, who collaborate to research and develop thought leadership and advocacy around the themes of digital economies, and the future of money and payments.