Blockchain ambitions: China’s e-yuan kick starts a rush to mint digital currencies all along the new Silk Road
- Cambodia launched the digital bakong last October, describing it as a hybrid CBDC that supports transactions in both the riel and the US dollar
- Indonesia’s central bank governor confirmed in May that Southeast Asia’s largest economy would launch a digital currency
In the second instalment of a three-part series produced with support from the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, Forkast.News looks at how countries in Asia and along the New Silk Road may adopt the digital yuan or create their own digital currency. Part 1 was published on June 28 and Part 3 will be published on June 30.
When the first caravans carrying Chinese silks arrived in ancient Rome, it set off a female fashion craze. The wives of senators and generals had never felt or seen anything so lustrous. Like the Chinese elite, they adopted the material as a symbol of wealth and status, embroidered silk robes with gold and wore them to the grave.
Government leaders “are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and the train is the light; it’s coming right at them,” said Don Tapscott, executive chairman of the Toronto-based Blockchain Research Institute. The stakes are very high.
