Digital money: CBDCs, stablecoins, the rest

The technical debate about CBDCs, stablecoins, and other digital money is small. The political debate — who can program your money, who can see your transactions, who can confiscate them — is enormous and largely under-discussed.

Different design choices produce profoundly different societies. China's e-CNY answers very differently than a hypothetical privacy-preserving Fed digital dollar. The technical work is largely done; the political choices are not — and you live in whatever they decide.

Programmability

expiration · restrictions

Visibility

to issuer · to state

Reversibility

by court · by issuer

Anonymity

tiered · or none