The Center for Advanced Research and Postgraduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS Occidente) together with the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) present the following virtual talk:

What’s a Central Bank Digital Currency and Why Do They Matter (Even If They Never Exist)?
with Bill Maurer, UCI, moderated by Magdalena Villareal, CIESAS

CBDCs became a topic of debate after the rise of bitcoin, yet proceed from very different assumptions about the nature of money and the role of the state. They also spotlight the public interest in the ability to pay for things—something so basic we rarely even consider it. This talk considers CBDCs—which, as of now, don’t even really exist, outside of a few pilots—in light of that public interest, and asks whether a truly democratic digital money can take shape in the context of pervasive digital surveillance and broader challenges to democracy.

For Q&A and discussion, professors Maurer and Villareal will be joined by :
-Nima Yolmo, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
-Andrew Crawford, Doctoral Researcher at Universität Hamburg

The event is part of the International Seminar on the Anthropology of Money and the Economy (ADE) that was born in May 2017 with a session that you can consult here: https://inclusionesfinancieras.wordpress.com/.

Live Spanish translation is available.

Bill Maurer is dean of the School of Social Sciences and professor of anthropology and law at UCI. He is the author of How Would You Like to Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money, among many other publications. He directs the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion at UCI.

Magdalena Villarreal is senior researcher and professor at the Mexican Center for Advanced Research and Postgraduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS Occidente) and member of the National Research System and the National Academy of Sciences.