Posts in Featured
MIT, Maiden Labs examine CBDC inclusiveness issues in report from 4 countries
MIT, Maiden Labs examine CBDC inclusiveness issues in report from 4 countries

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) and associated organizations marshaled a sizable team of researchers in four low- and middle-income countries — India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Mexico — to study inclusion issues related to retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) design. They released the results of their 15-month research project on Jan. 13.

In spite of a growing body of work related to CBDCs, “few if any proponents have offered practical insight into how CBDC will promote greater access to financial services,” the DCI, along with the MIT Media Lab and Maiden Labs, claimed.

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Featured, Papers, ResearchGuest Usercentral bank digital currency, cbdc, financial inclusion, Neha Narula
Nicolas Xuan-Yi Zhang, "A Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform"
Nicolas Xuan-Yi Zhang, "A Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform"

The DCI’s Nicolas Xuan-Yi Zhang coauthored a paper at IMF on multi-currency exchange.

Cross-border payments can be slow, expensive, and risky. They are intermediated by counterparties in different jurisdictions which rely on costly trusted relationships to offset the lack of a common settlement asset as well as common rules and governance. In this paper, we present a vision for a multilateral platform that could improve cross-border payments, as well as related foreign exchange transactions, risk sharing, and more generally, financial contracting. The approach is to leverage technological innovations for public policy objectives. A common ledger, smart contracts, and encryption offer significant gains to market efficiency, completeness, and access, as well as to transparency, transaction and compliance costs, and safety. This paper is a first step aiming to stimulate further work in this space.

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Featured, Papers, ResearchGuest UserNicolas Xuan-Yi Zhang, Exchanges, smart contracts, encryption
WBUR's Tales from the Crypto | Part I: Ukraine's NFTs and the 'Fyre Fest' of cryptocurrency
WBUR's Tales from the Crypto | Part I: Ukraine's NFTs and the 'Fyre Fest' of cryptocurrency

The Endless Thread team is excited to introduce a new mini-series: Tales from the Crypto, or three windows into the wild world of cryptocurrency. It's a landscape ripe for investors, gamblers, opportunists, and academic investigators — both online and offline. At every turn, our hosts and producers have turned to experts to make sense of this volatile, ever expanding terrain.

In the series' first installment, co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dive into a viral tweet about NFTs aiding Ukrainians with the war effort against Russia, as well as plans for a crypto island paradise that was never meant to be.

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Podcast, Featured, ArticlesGuest UserNeha Narula
The MIT Digital Currency Initiative bids farewell to Tadge Dryja
The MIT Digital Currency Initiative bids farewell to Tadge Dryja

Five years ago, I was in the Boston area for a week and I hung out at the DCI.

It wasn't much of a space back then—really more like a closet. But there were ethernet ports in the walls, assorted cables, and computer accessories, and a couch with occasional undergrads hanging out, coding, or discussing the finer points of cryptocurrencies. It was welcoming, and a lot of fun. I brought a computer and started working, and talking to people about Bitcoin, and helping some students with their projects…

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Articles, Featured, ResearchAshley JacobsonTadge Dryja, Lightning Network
MIT Technology Review “The MIT researcher who helps senators understand digital currencies“
MIT Technology Review “The MIT researcher who helps senators understand digital currencies“

Last summer, a special subcommittee of the US Senate met remotely to weigh the benefits of launching a central-bank digital currency, or CBDC—something that could, if optimally designed, transform the US financial system, making it more accessible to more citizens. For senators staring intently at their laptops, this was basically the first day of digital-currency school. And to introduce them to this highly technical world, the first witness that Senator Elizabeth Warren called was MIT Digital Currency Initiative director Neha Narula.

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Articles, FeaturedAshley JacobsonNeha Narula, cbdc, OpenCBDC, opencbdc, Policy
MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) announces research collaboration with the Bank of England on central bank digital currency
MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) announces research collaboration with the Bank of England on central bank digital currency

The Bank of England announced an agreement to collaborate on a twelve-month Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) research project with MIT Digital Currency Initiative. The agreement supports and builds on DCI’s ongoing research into CBDC, while also contributing to the Bank of England’s wider research and exploration of central bank digital currencies. While no decision has been made on whether or not to introduce a CBDC in the UK, the work will investigate and experiment with potential CBDC technology designs and approaches, and evaluate key tradeoffs, opportunities, and risks. This type of research can help inform wider policy development by contributing important technical ideas and questions.

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Articles, FeaturedAshley Jacobsoncbdc, OpenCBDC, Hypothetical cbdc, opencbdc, digital fiat currency
MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) announces research collaboration with the Bank of Canada on central bank digital currency
MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) announces research collaboration with the Bank of Canada on central bank digital currency

Today, the Bank of Canada announced an agreement to collaborate on a twelve-month CBDC research project with the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. The agreement supports and builds on the DCI’s ongoing research into CBDC, while also contributing to the Bank of Canada’s wider research agenda into digital currencies and fintech. The work will investigate and experiment with potential CBDC technology designs and approaches, and evaluate key tradeoffs, opportunities, and risks. While no decision has been made on whether or not to introduce a CBDC in Canada, this type of research can help inform wider policy development by contributing important technical ideas and questions.

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Featured, ArticlesAshley JacobsonOpenCBDC, cbdc, digital fiat currency
MIT News "MIT experts test technical research for a hypothetical central bank digital currency"
MIT News "MIT experts test technical research for a hypothetical central bank digital currency"

Collaboration with Federal Reserve Bank of Boston yields progress in understanding how a digital currency might be developed in the future.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In collaboration with a team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, MIT experts have begun designing and testing technical research through which further examination of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) can be performed in the U.S.

The effort, known as Project Hamilton, is in an exploratory phase, and the research is not intended as a pilot or for public deployment. Instead, the researchers have explored two different approaches that could be used to process transactions, and thus could indicate the technical feasibility of a potential CBDC model. In a process involving significant design flexibility, the MIT group tested factors such as the volume and speed of transactions, and the resilience of the systems in general, among other requirements for a viable digital currency.

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Articles, FeaturedAshley JacobsonOpenCBDC, central bank digital currency, digital fiat currency, opencbdc
"Why Central Bank Digital Currencies?" in Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics
"Why Central Bank Digital Currencies?" in Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics

DCI Director Neha Narula co-authored the piece, "Why Central Bank Digital Currencies?" published in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics

“In the past year, a number of central banks have stepped up work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs – see map). For central banks, are CBDCs just a defensive reaction to private-sector innovations in money, or are they an opportunity for the monetary system? In this post, we consider several long-standing goals of central banks in their support and provision of retail payments, why and how central banks tackle these issues, and where CBDCs fit into the array of potential solutions.”

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Articles, FeaturedAshley Jacobsoncbdc, Hypothetical cbdc, Neha Narula, digital fiat currency
Joining MIT DCI to lead our Bitcoin Software and Security Effort

We’re excited to share that AJ Towns is joining the Digital Currency Initiative to lead our Bitcoin Software and Security Effort (please find his announcement below). This four-year research and development program is designed to continue to harden the Bitcoin network and steward the industry’s commitment to funding open source software. The effort will include contributing to Bitcoin Core development as well as longer-term research, such as investigations into the stability of rewards and software to provide strong robustness and correctness guarantees. It will also include attracting talent in network and operating system security, compilers, programming languages, testing, and more to join the effort.

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Articles, FeaturedAshley JacobsonBitcoin, Security, AJ Towns, Anthony Towns, Bitcoin Security, Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Network
CNBC's Dain Evans interviews Neha Narula for "China’s digital yuan could pose challenges to the U.S. dollar"
CNBC's Dain Evans interviews Neha Narula for "China’s digital yuan could pose challenges to the U.S. dollar"

China is beating the U.S. when it comes to innovation in online money, posing challenges to the U.S. dollar’s status as the de facto monetary reserve. Nearly 80 countries — including China and the U.S. — are in the process of developing a CBDC, or Central Bank Digital Currency. It’s a form of money that’s regulated but exists entirely online. China has already launched its digital yuan to more than a million Chinese citizens, while the U.S. is still largely focused on research.

The two groups tasked with this research in the U.S., MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, are parsing out what a digital currency might look like for Americans. Privacy is a major concern, so researchers and analysts are observing China’s digital yuan rollout.

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Articles, Podcast, FeaturedAshley JacobsonNeha Narula, cbdc
"Still Getting Your Head Around Digital Currency? So Are Central Bankers." Talks with DCI's Neha Narula
"Still Getting Your Head Around Digital Currency? So Are Central Bankers." Talks with DCI's Neha Narula

If you are trying to grasp Bitcoin and understand what China’s digital yuan means, America’s Federal Reserve is right there with you.

America’s Federal Reserve says it is in no rush to issue a digital currency, but it is coming under intense and increasing pressure to research and understand the design and potential of digital money.

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Articles, FeaturedAshley Jacobsoncbdc, Hypothetical cbdc, Neha Narula