# Central Bank Digital Currency
A digital [currency](currency.md) issued by a [central-banks](central-banks.md) often shorted as CBDC. The implementation and wise-scale use of CBDCs is a hypothetical technology. Many experimental implementations do not use a [blockchain](blockchain.md) and are based on centralized database technologies and do not require a [consensus-algorithm](consensus-algorithm.md). This makes CBDCs technical underpinnings significantly distinct from [crypto asset](cryptoasset.md) which are allegedly [decentralized](decentralization.md).

CBDCs are either based on an *account model* or *token model*.

CBDCs have been critized as being an extension of the surveillance state that conflicts with financial privacy norms.

## Examples

* Chinese Digital Yuan
* Bahama Sand Dollar

## References

* [@kiff_survey_2020]
* [@bilotta_cbdcs_nodate]
* [@nabilou_central_2019]