CBDC as a Fantastic Object — Views on Monetary Utopia

The debate about CBDC seems to attract writers who are interested in technology and utopias, but not necessarily in the functioning of a modern monetary system. There are many misconceptions about what money is and what CBDC would change. Different political and economic schools see CBDC as a fantastic object, something hard to pin down, but definitely utopian in character. Achieving the fantastic object requires sacrifice. Depending on the point of view, different visions of what those sacrifices might be have emerged. Sovereignty over the payment system versus dependence on rent-extracting foreign firms is one of these visions. After presenting alternative paths to CBDC, we present a technical discussion of what CBDC is and why its introduction is unlikely to result in major changes, if it is introduced at all.