Insights.
CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES
Is there any work for banknote designers and Central Bank Digital Currencies. This new technology requires care to recreate the same level of trust as cash. Can it be done?
Independent Currencies carefully follows the progress of any new emergent forms of money. CBDCs are a new form of money, being somewhere between cryptocurrency and fiat currency. They are fiat, in that their use would be enforced, yet they would be completely digital.
Independent Currencies has been a keen observer of the visual evolution of digital currency, and how new forms of money acquire trust through sensitive visual design. We are interested to see how CBDCs will achieve uptake, with or without a vital visual component.
Our work with cash stands as case studies in merging digital currencies with paper money, so we are in a position to offer our knowledge in this area. Ultimately, money’s only utility is to be trusted, so if a CBDC survives only because it is enforced, and not because it is truly desired, it may be short-lived. Our work in both paper money, the digital assets space, and our efforts to hybridize both, have proven that thoughtful and trusted visual design goes a long way to creating the trust that is essential for money.
