Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC refers to the concept of creating electronic money that is held directly in accounts at the central bank (see, for example, the Eurosystem’s project to introduce a digital euro). This should ideally be available to a wider range of users than the current digital form of monetary base for commercial banks (financial inclusion). There are various concepts of how digital central bank money could be designed. In the broadest sense, it would be conceivable that every citizen or every company could have an account with the central bank. Depending on the design, mobile apps or anonymous credit cards could also be used for payment transactions or for storing value.
Digital central bank money differs from stablecoins in that the former is created by a central bank and the latter by the private sector.