Attitudes and Anonymity in Digital Currency

Research from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) last year showed up some interesting consumer attitudes around a digital fiat currency. At high level it told us that Aussies do not care about safety (they do not distinguish between commercial bank money and central bank money as nerds like me do) but they do care about privacy, to the extent that they are willing to pay for it. Interesting.Subscribe nowMoney And MessagingThe RBA’s paper explored the merits of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia, focusing on the extent to which consumers would value having access to a digital form of money that is even safer and potentially more private than commercial bank deposits. Safety did not seem to be a selling point, which is consistent with bank deposits in Australia already being perceived as a safe form of money (because of a deposit protection scheme) and physical cash continuing to be available as an alternative option. So therefore you cannot charge consumers for a CBDC on the basis of safety.When it comes to privacy though, there is a different perception. Consumers say that they value transaction anonymity and that they care about who transaction data is shared with, to the extent that they are prepared to pay A$5 more for an account that shares transaction data with the central bank instead of with commercial banks, even assuming that the financial crime authority, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), can access the transaction data in either…Attitudes and Anonymity in Digital Currency