Digital money issued by central banks is a parade of failures

Digital currencies issued by central banks are not new. Currently, there are around the world 163 different projects digital fiat currencies. Of these, three are fully operational (Jamaica's JAM-DEX, the Bahamian Sand Dollar and Nigeria's most famous e-Naira) and 24 are in the pilot phase. Seven European countries are among them. The eurozone itself is gradually pushing the digital euro project into the pilot phase, where it is expected to reach in 2027.

Most of the projects were created after the shock announcement by Meta in 2019 of the upcoming digital currency, the pound. The latter ended in fiasco when, after three years and hundreds of millions of dollars sunk, it was finally written off by its new owner.

In the meantime, however, crypto-revolution ran rampant and blockchain solutions were popping out of the fridge. The pound was forgotten and central banks, riding a wave of enthusiasm, came up with one digital "solution" after another.

Wherever they originated

But their history so far is at best salty-glumand I'm being charitable. The first major attempt, and failure, dates back to 2015 in the form of Ecuador's dinero electrónico. In its first year, half a million inhabitants were supposed to participate, the reality was less than five thousand. At its peak, the dinero accounted for just 0.05 percent of the country's money supply. In 2018, Ecuador abandoned it.

The Bahamian Sand Dollar was a few years ago was considered the leader in digital money, and the head of their central bank used to lecture Europeans. But the years go by and Sand Dollar... doesn't. In 2020, it will make up 0.01 percent of Bahamian cash, and in 2024, roughly 0.3 percent. Growth on paper, but nothing in terms of day-to-day usage. Similarly, Jamaica's JAM-DEX has only accounted for roughly 0.1 per cent of the country's cash since its launch in 2022, with very slow growth in that share.

DCash, on the other hand, is the digital currency of eight countries in the Eastern Caribbean. It was launched in March 2021 and unexpectedly stopped working a year later due to technical problems. These were only resolved after two months. Such an event does not help build user trust and DCash is also making a living.

However, the winner in the race for bad digital money is clearly Nigeria. The world's sixth most populous country launched the e-Naira currency in late 2021. It was supposed to revolutionise a country with big ambitions but also a large unbanked rural population. It almost caused it, but a very different.

The government there, in an attempt to accelerate the pace of e-Naira adoption, unexpectedly made monetary reform to make it harder to hold and use paper money. Millions of Nigerians launched a run on the banks and the shortage of paper cash led to widespread riots.

Nigerian eventually had to reverse the currency reform. Digital currency still exists, but it makes up only about 0.4 percent of cash, and the country's currency debacle has cost it tens of billions of dollars. Ironically, Nigeria's Lagos was already Africa's fintech capital back then, with plenty of viable private projects.

As in China

I understand that neither the Bahamas nor Nigeria excites anyone. But what about the most ambitious project of our time - China and its e-Yuan? Already in 2020, almost all Chinese living in cities were using corporate digital currencies in a big way, especially WeChat Pay and Alipay. The digital yuan seems unnecessary in a country where instant digital payments are the standard. Not so for the Party that rules all.

China's state-owned digital currency is not tasked with streamlining payments or bankrupting the countryside. Its creation is closely tied to the idea of social credit. Every step on the street, every purchase, every photo on a Chinese citizen's social media is to be checked and rated positively or negatively with implications for the individual's social credit. This in turn places the latter on a ladder of reliability and opens or closes him or her to life's possibilities. Including monetary flows in this concept is a natural step to be fulfilled by the e-Yuan.

This national digital currency has been rolled out in phases since 2021, but Chinese citizens are not flocking to it, preferring to stick to digital alternatives. For 2025, the annual transaction volume of e-Yuan is estimated at the equivalent of $14 trillion, for Alipay at $20 trillion, for WeChat Pay a little less. After two years, even Chinese central bank officials have expressed disappointment at the usage rate.

For the authorities, however, it is not a question of "if" but "when" and "how". At the same time as e-Yuan was launched, government pressure on domestic tech giants began to gather momentum with the third period Xi Jinping. The next trajectory of the country's digital currency depends on whether the fintech sector cooperates voluntarily or is "disrupted" by officials - though it would cost China a lot.

Digital fiat money thus remains a solution to a problem that either needs to be discovered or that consumers prefer not to even address. That problem is control over it. That is why many rational people are not at all bothered by the fact that the eurozone is so far behind with its digital euro.