One motivation for CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) was succinctly stated by BIS (Bank of International Settlements, the central bank for all central banks, including US and UK) Director Carstens at an IMF meeting in 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVmKN4DSu3g&t=1451s

> With cash, we don't know who is using the 100 dollar bill today ... a key difference with CBDC is that the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that determine the expression of that central bank liability .. also we will have the technology to enforce that ... if an advanced economy issues a CBDC, and someone in a 3rd country wants to use it, it will require the consent of the central bank of the residence of that person, therefore the degree of control will be far bigger.

Previous CBDC threads on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30634245 (2022), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27805709 (2021).

Meanwhile, the US UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) was modified in July 2022 to recognize CERs (controllable electronic records), a flexible definition which could apply to both decentralized cryptocurrencies and centralized CBDCs. It's now up to individual U.S. states to ratify these changes in state legislation, https://www.clearygottlieb.com//news-and-insights/publicatio...

> Control under Article 12 is designed to be a technology-neutral functional equivalent of “possession.” It generally encompasses circumstances when a party has the “private key” or other mechanism to avail itself of substantially all of the benefits of the record, prevent others from availing themselves of such benefits, and transfer the record and associated benefits.