I used to be a senior research economist at the Deutsche Bundesbank, where I worked on digital currencies and P2P lending, and where I initiated the above-mentioned international workshop series on P2P Financial Systems.
Although the benefits of digital currencies are widely known, the possibility of having governments involved in their issues is criticized mainly due to privacy concerns. For this reason, I have published extensive research on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). My work focuses on designing a digital solution that retains the features of cash while ensuring that transaction counterparties are not known. This is possible thanks to the use of privacy-enhancing techniques such as blind signatures, zero-knowledge proofs, and non-custodial wallets, as well as by appointing the management of operations to the private sector.
The interplay between emerging technologies and financial inclusion has also been a high priority for me. I delivered a multi-year consulting and training program to the Latin American association of Latin American central Bbnks CEMLA (Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latino Americanos), personally educating the teams of numerous central banks on blockchain technology and CBDCs, with a focus on financial inclusion, as one of the central banks’ top priorities.
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