Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Central banks worldwide are developing, piloting and launching new central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). As the hub for the central banking community, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) promotes a curiously botanical CBDC imaginary. From ‘money flowers’ to ‘tree trunks’ and a ‘strong canopy’, This helps to naturalize CBDC without clarifying its sociopolitical implications or envisioned monetary future, such as geopolitical tensions and financial fragmentation, new modes of financial interaction or the strengthened role of central banks. While omitting the paradoxes and ambivalences of CBDC, the imaginary of the BIS structures the enfolding discourses and allows the bank to function as a think tank for financial policy‐making.
Source: Anthropology Today
Authors: Lana Swartz, Carola Westermeier
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,140
OpenAlex ID: W4385469944