Don’t Call China’s Digital Currency a Crypto Project

China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been shrouded in mystery. Some have labeled the development as a tracking tool for an authoritarian government. Others have been more generous.

Both groups can, however, agree on one point: it’s nothing like Bitcoin.

Don’t Call it a Cryptocurrency

A recent document found by a Chinese think tank suggests that the People’s Bank of China will track customer fund flow and use big data analytics to collect and process large amounts of transactional information passing through the database.

Although they claim to preserve user privacy in the process, the document clearly outlines that the commercial partners have the ability to track cash flows within the scope of their own users. 

While it isn’t mentioned in the document, the very existence of such a system means the central bank has access to the entire system, just as the central bank of any country can track remittances back to a particular user within their country. 

Matthew…