Countries with most research into interbank CBDC 2021-2023
Project Inthanon-Lionrock ranked as the world's most advanced Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) project for financial institutions in the world. CBDC are essentially cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), but instead of being privately issues these are to be issued by central banks. The numbers provided here, however, should not be confused with China's digital yuan or Sweden's e-krona: Those are examples of retail CBDC, aimed at replacing banknotes and physical coins for day-to-day consumer use. The figures shown here are wholesale CBDC: Central banks applying blockchain technology not for consumer use, but aimed towards an application in banking processes. This includes things like cross-border payments between banks or optimizing clearing and financial settlements. Improving cross-border payments was not the main driver for central banks on why they should develop a CBDC.