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Visualized: The State of Central Bank Digital Currencies

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central bank digital currencies

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Visualized: The State of Central Bank Digital Currencies

Central banks around the world are getting involved in digital currencies, but some are further ahead than others.

In this map, we used data from the Atlantic Council’s Currency Tracker to visualize the state of each central banks’ digital currency effort.

Digital Currency – The Basics

Digital currencies have been around since the 1980s, but didn’t become widely popular until the launch of Bitcoin in 2009. Today, there are thousands of digital currencies in existence, also referred to as “cryptocurrencies”.

A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are based on a blockchain ledger. Blockchains can be either decentralized or centralized, but the most known cryptocurrencies today (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) tend to be decentralized in nature. This makes transfers and payments very difficult to trace because there is no single entity with full control.

Government-issued digital currencies, on the other hand, will be controlled by a central bank and are likely to be easily trackable. They would have the same value as the local cash currency, but instead issued digitally with no physical form.

Central Bank Digital Currencies Worldwide

105 countries are currently exploring centralized digital currencies. Together, they represent 95% of global GDP. The table below lists the data used in the infographic.

CountryStatusUse Case
NigeriaLaunchedRetail
The BahamasLaunchedRetail
JamaicaLaunchedRetail
AnguilaLaunchedRetail
Saint Kitts and NevisLaunchedRetail
Antigua and BarbudaLaunchedRetail
MontserratLaunchedRetail
DominicaLaunchedRetail
Saint LuciaLaunchedRetail
Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesLaunchedRetail
GrenadaLaunchedRetail
SwedenPilotRetail
LithuaniaPilotRetail
UkrainePilotUndecided
KazakhstanPilotRetail
RussiaPilotRetail
ChinaPilotBoth
ThailandPilotBoth
Hong KongPilotBoth
South KoreaPilotRetail
Saudi ArabiaPilotWholesale
United Arab EmiratesPilotWholesale
SingaporePilotWholesale
MalaysiaPilotWholesale
South AfricaPilotBoth
CanadaDevelopmentBoth
BelizeDevelopmentUndecided
HaitiDevelopmentBoth
VenezuelaDevelopmentBoth
BrazilDevelopmentRetail
TurkeyDevelopmentRetail
IranDevelopmentRetail
BahrainDevelopmentWholesale
IndiaDevelopmentBoth
MauritiusDevelopmentBoth
BhutanDevelopmentBoth
CambodiaDevelopmentRetail
IndonesiaDevelopmentBoth
PalauDevelopmentBoth
AustraliaDevelopmentBoth
JapanDevelopmentBoth
SpainDevelopmentRetail
FranceDevelopmentBoth
NetherlandsDevelopmentRetail
SwitzerlandDevelopmentWholesale
ItalyDevelopmentUndecided
GermanyDevelopmentUndecided
EstoniaDevelopmentRetail
LebanonDevelopmentRetail
IsraelDevelopmentRetail
Euro AreaDevelopmentBoth
United StatesResearchRetail
MexicoResearchRetail
GuatemalaResearchUndecided
HondurasResearchUndecided
Trinidad andd TobagoResearchUndecided
ColombiaResearchUndecided
PeruResearchUndecided
ParaguayResearchUndecided
ChileResearchRetail
IcelandResearchRetail
UKResearchBoth
MoroccoResearchRetail
GhanaResearchRetail
NamibiaResearchUndecided
EswatiniResearchBoth
MadagastarResearchRetail
ZimbabweResearchUndecided
ZambiaResearchUndecided
TanzaniaResearchUndecided
RwandaResearchUndecided
UgandaResearchUndecided
KenyaResearchRetail
TunisiaResearchWholesale
OmanResearchUndecided
KuwaitResearchRetail
JordanResearchUndecided
GeorgiaResearchRetail
BelarusResearchUndecided
NorwayResearchRetail
Czech RepublichResearchUndecided
PakistanResearchRetail
NepalResearchUndecided
BangladeshResearchUndecided
MyanmarResearchUndecided
LaosResearchBoth
VietnamResearchUndecided
MacauResearchUndecided
TaiwanResearchBoth
PhilippinesResearchRetail
New ZealandResearchRetail
VanuatuResearchUndecided
FijiResearchUndecided
TongaResearchUndecided
PalestineResearchRetail
JordanResearchUndecided
AustriaResearchWholesale
HungaryResearchRetail
BermudaInactiveUndecided
Sint MaartenInactiveRetail
CuraçaoInactiveRetail
ArgentinaInactiveUndecided
UruguayInactiveRetail
DenmarkInactiveRetail
AzerbaijanInactiveUndecided
EgyptInactiveUndecided
North KoreaInactiveUndecided
FinlandInactiveRetail
EcuadorCancelledRetail
SenegalCancelledRetail

When aggregated, we can see that the majority of countries are in the research stage.

central bank digital currencies by status

We’ve also divided the map by region to make viewing easier.

Africa

Africa digital currencies

Asia

Asia digital currencies

Europe

Europe digital currencies

Middle East

Middle East digital currencies

South America

South America digital currencies

North America

North American digital currencies

What are the Benefits?

A major benefit of government-issued digital currencies is that they can improve access for underbanked people.

This is not a huge issue in developed countries like the U.S., but many people in developing nations have no access to banks and other financial services (hence the term underbanked). As the number of internet users continues to climb, digital currencies represent a sound solution.

To learn more about this topic, visit this article from Global Finance, which lists the world’s most underbanked countries in 2021.

The 9%

Just 9% of countries have launched a digital currency to date.

This includes Nigeria, which became the first African country to do so in October 2021. Half of the country’s 200 million population is believed to have no access to bank accounts.

Adoption of the eNaira (the digital version of the naira) has so far been relatively sluggish. The eNaira app has accumulated 700,000 downloads as of April 2022. That’s equal to 0.35% of the population, though not all of the downloads are users in Nigeria.

Conversely, 33.4 million Nigerians were reported to be trading or owning crypto assets, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s attempts to restrict usage.

Status in the U.S.

America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, has not decided on whether it will implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Our key focus is on whether and how a CBDC could improve on an already safe and efficient U.S. domestic payments system.
– Federal Reserve

To learn more, check out the Federal Reserve’s January 2022 paper on the pros and cons of CBDCs.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.

Data and Methodology

To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.

With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.

DepartmentLarge impact (%)Small impact (%)No impact (%)
IT73261
Finance70219
Customer Sales671617
Operations651817
HR57412
Marketing56413
Legal46504
Supply Chain431839

In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.

Where AI will make the biggest impact

Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.

Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.

Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.

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