A Minting Mold for the eFranc: A Policy Paper

Hans Gersbach and Roger Wattenhofer ()
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Roger Wattenhofer: Distributed Computing Group, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

No 20/342, CER-ETH Economics working paper series from CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich

Abstract: We suggest a blueprint for an eFranc as a possible complement for the Swiss monetary system to ensure the long-term stability of its money. An eFranc is a non-interest-bearing digital form of the legal tender available to the public. The public can convert banknotes or part of its bank deposits into eFrancs, subject to the banks’ ability to obtain the corresponding amount of eFrancs from the central bank. There is free conversion of eFrancs into bank deposits (and into banknotes). For the technical implementation of the eFranc, we suggest a two-layer system combining a permissioned asynchronous blockchain without consensus which provides a secure environment for validating transactions (base layer) plus a peer-to-peer payment network (top layer).

Keywords: eFranc; Swiss Monetary System; Financial Stability; Swiss National Bank; Proof-of-stake Blockchains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mon and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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