From a positive point of view, the central bank's exploration of legal digital currency, by stripping and applying some technical features of decentralized currency, may eventually bring higher currency transaction efficiency, lower cost, more accurate policy implementation, more effective anti-money laundering and other risk control, thus profoundly changing people's lives and modern monetary system.
Recently, the news that the central bank has promoted the study of statutory digital currency has aroused widespread concern. In fact, since Bitcoin became increasingly popular, digital currency has become a hot topic inside and outside the industry. However, there are a lot of ambiguities in basic concepts, connotations, boundaries and so on, which leads to a lot of confusion in understanding digital currency, and even the phenomenon that "chickens talk with ducks" often appears. In this regard, we need to systematically sort out the development of digital currency and clearly understand what impact it can bring to the monetary and financial system.
Theoretically, accounts and payment instruments can be separated, which is also a long-standing situation abroad. However, in China, because bank cards have become the main tool of accounts and there are no personal checks, they may be integrated in the public impression. At present, in the process of promoting the reform of bank accounts and payment accounts, the central bank may promote the integration of bank accounts and new payment media. In the long run, it is also possible to directly integrate bank accounts with new payment media along with technological progress, thus further improving payment efficiency.
The operation of modern monetary system is inseparable from bank deposit currency (bookkeeping currency), and with the continuous development of payment technology, the problems at the monetary level and the payment level are often intertwined, making the problem more complicated.