Throughout the last decade Sweden has had a decrease in cash by roughly 35% and the Riksbank has expressed concern regarding people becoming more reliable on the commercial banks if not having access to cash. At the same time there has been an increased interest regarding blockchain technologies from Central Banks around the world, which allows for the creation of decentralized payment schemes, during the recent years. Now, the Riksbank has announced that they are looking into the possibility of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) alongside the current bank notes and coins. This could mean that individuals possibly would have the option to pay digitally using a payment scheme offered by the Riksbank.

The aim of this study was to explore the topic of a CBDC to identify important areas for further research. Through conducting a literature study complemented by interviews, fours areas of interest were identified. These were the cost of digital transactions, the required infrastructure for a national payment system, the attributes of the currency and the security aspect depending on the implementation. The topic chosen for further research was allowing pseudonymous, meaning that the person’s legal identity is not revealed, transactions while having a central power being able to print money. This was further investigated by gathering additional literature complemented with interviews.

In order to implement a CBDC, a developed infrastructure is required to support people having access to the service. Sweden almost covers the whole population when it comes to 2G and 3G while only a third of the population owns a smartphone. This allows for potential in order to include a rather large portion of the population if a solution through the phone were to be used. Other countries wanting to implement a CBDC would also need to look at the current IT infrastructure in the country in order to understand how many could be reached depending on the implementation.

From the second round of interviews there was a unanimous consensus that a centralized system which allows pseudonymous payments would not be sufficiently secure for a nation to rely its whole economy upon. These two requirements together would make the system more exposed to being hacked and therefore, with the current technology, it seems as it is not possible. This problem is one that any other nations also would face that seeks to implement a CBDC. As of now, it seems that pseudonymity combined with a central power having the ability to issue money, does not create a solution with sufficient security for a nation to rely upon.