Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, published a 98-page ‘Economic Review’ report. In that report, the central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, were extensively discussed. Thus, it indicates that the country might be considering the creation of its such asset – the e-Krona.
Riksbank’s June 18, 2021 report mentioned in an initial note to readers:
“The second issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review in 2021 has a special theme, namely central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the e-krona.”
Sweden’s interest in this arena is not new since, in December 2019, the country announced its intentions for a pilot program around its e-krona. That pilot program would happen in collaboration with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture.
This latest report from the country’s central bank picked some points from its 2018 Economic Review. At that time, the bank explained the e-krona project and its progress:
“Riksbank has since continued to delve into various aspects of CBDC, both from an analytical and a practical perspective. Some of this work is summarized in this issue.”
The Latest Edition Addresses Several CBDC Aspects
Riksbank’s 2021 Economic Review consists of some reasoning behind a Swedish CBDC. It listed the monetary issues affecting the country and many other key drivers. Also, this report covered other major points of consideration. Some of them include inquiry on such a currency’s necessity, involved competition, and several other aspects.
Furthermore, the review only comprises of one direct reference to the blockchain as seen in the footnote on page 89 that reads:
“An open DLT network comes with several disadvantages; every transaction must be verified by every participant (cf. blockchain) in time and resource-consuming manner. The responsibility for the Riksbank regarding AML, KYC & CTF could be indefinite. Fraud and cyber-attacks are hard to prevent in an open network.”
But, this report does mention the distributed ledger technology, or DLT, many times. After the COVID-19 measures were implemented in March, the United States proposed a digital dollar. However, reports emerged that such a dollar did not include DLT or blockchain.
