The Economist published this weekend a special report on digital public money. This is very positive because very few media outlets have given so much space to talk about something that, as The Economist recognizes, is going to be a great experiment in the financial system. "A world without banks is on the horizon ”. "Governments and financial institutions must prepare for a far-reaching change in how money works"

Although The Economist is favorable to the introduction of digital public money - "it has risks, but it is worth it" -, the report hardly explains its benefits, but concentrates on explaining the risks.

Esto It is normal in any communication medium that aspires to capture the attention of the public. Of the technological advances that are taking place in recent decades, the media focus on their negative effects. We have seen it recently with vaccines where the space dedicated to the thrombi produced by Astrazeneca has filled newspapers and magazines. At this point, no one talks about the problems of smart mobile phones, but remember when the press warned of the risks of accidents due to using mobile phones or the threat of being used to carry out terrorist attacks, as was the case with the Atocha bombs. All of this is true, but they are not sufficient reasons not to use vaccines or cell phones.

In addition, some of the risks posed, for example, that central banks are going to be the providers of payment services, which were used long ago to stop the idea of ​​CBDCs, they have already stopped worrying. All the projects currently being studied by central banks are of the “Two Tier” type: the State will provide safe money but all payment services will be provided by private initiative. Even to the extent that the provision of these services will be opened to non-banking entities, there will be greater competition in these services than that which exists today in a system in which they are oligopolized and heavily intervened by the State. In payment services and financing with digital public money we will have more market and less state.

However there are many other issues that continue to be debated at this time, such as the one related to the use of data or the need to avoid problems of dominance position of Bigtech that could harm competition.

Whoever follows the studies being carried out by central banks will not find anything of interest in this report. But it is very positive that these projects are beginning to spread to the public opinion, because inevitably the parliaments will have to debate and approve them. And the parliamentarians are elected, as they say now, "the people"