Money and payments

• Decentralized finance: Innovations and challenges

  Staff analytical note 2023-15 Jonathan Chiu, Hanna Yu

  Decentralized finance surged in popularity around 2020. We explore its value and limitations and highlight some potential regulatory concerns.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Estimating the Appropriate Quantity of Settlement Balances in a Floor System

  Staff discussion paper 2023-26 Narayan Bulusu, Matthew McNeely, Kaetlynd McRae, Jonathan Witmer

  This paper presents two complementary approaches to estimating the appropriate quantity of settlement balances needed to effectively operate monetary policy under a floor system in Canada.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E52, E58, G, G2, G21, G28 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Three things we learned about the Lynx payment system

  Staff analytical note 2023-14 Nikil Chande, Zhentong Lu, Hiru Rodrigo, Phoebe Tian

  Canada transitioned to a new wholesale payment system, Lynx, in August 2021. Lynx is based on a real-time settlement model that eliminates credit risk in the system. This model can require more liquidity; however, Lynx’s design allows Canada’s wholesale payments to settle efficiently.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C1, C10, E, E4, E42, G, G2, G28 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Redefining Financial Inclusion for a Digital Age: Implications for a Central Bank Digital Currency

  Staff discussion paper 2023-22 Alexandra Sutton-Lalani, Sebastian Hernandez, John Miedema, Jiamin Dai, Badr Omrane

  We explore quantitative and qualitative information about Canadians who face barriers to making digital payments. We also consider the implications of ongoing digitalization for modern financial inclusion and a potential central bank digital currency.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): A, A1, A14, E, E4, E42, E5, E50, I, I3, I31, O, O3, O33, O5, O51 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Retail payments, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply, Digitalization and productivity

• Anonymous Credentials: Secret-Free and Quantum-Safe

  Staff working paper 2023-50 Raza Ali Kazmi, Cyrus Minwalla

  An anonymous credential mechanism is a set of protocols that allows users to obtain credentials from an organization and demonstrate ownership of these credentials without compromising users’ privacy. In this work, we construct the first secret-free and quantum-safe credential mechanism.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Understanding DeFi Through the Lens of a Production-Network Model

  Staff working paper 2023-42 Jonathan Chiu, Thorsten Koeppl, Hanna Yu, Shengxing Zhang

  We develop a production-network model to capture how decentralized finance (DeFi) has evolved across different sectors of financial services. The model allows us to measure the value added by different DeFi sectors and to study how the connections across the sectors influence token prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G2 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech

• Unmet Payment Needs and a Central Bank Digital Currency

  Staff discussion paper 2023-15 Christopher Henry, Walter Engert, Alexandra Sutton-Lalani, Sebastian Hernandez, Darcey McVanel, Kim Huynh

  We discuss the payment habits of Canadians both in the current payment environment and in a hypothetical cashless environment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C12, C9, E, E4, O, O5, O54 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Cash and bank notes, Digital assets and fintech, Retail payments

• Cryptoasset Ownership and Use in Canada: An Update for 2022

  Staff discussion paper 2023-14 Daniela Balutel, Christopher Henry, Doina Rusu

  We find that Bitcoin ownership declined from 13% in 2021 to 10% in 2022. This drop occurred against a background of steep price declines and an increasingly tight regulatory atmosphere.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C8, C81, E, E4, O, O5, O51 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Cash and bank notes, Digital assets and fintech

• Privacy-Preserving Post-Quantum Credentials for Digital Payments

  Staff working paper 2023-33 Raza Ali Kazmi, Duc-Phong Le, Cyrus Minwalla

  Digital payments and decentralized systems enable the creation of new financial products and services for users. One core challenge in digital payments is the need to protect users from fraud and abuse while retaining privacy in individual transactions. We propose a pseudonymous credential scheme for use in payment systems to tackle this problem.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures, Retail payments

• Crowdfunding and Risk

  Staff working paper 2023-28 David Cimon

  Crowdfunding may enable unique products to reach the consumer market. I model a crowdfunding technology that publicly screens consumer demand early in the production process. In this model, entrepreneurs like crowdfunding for risky projects where demand is uncertain, but not for large, safe projects or for projects where production costs are uncertain.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, G24, G3, G32 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Household and business credit, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech