Blockchain@UBC March Research Talk - Dr. Oriol Caudevilla

A CBDC is a new form of Central Bank money accessible to the general public, accepted as a means of payment, legal tender, safe store of value by all citizens, businesses and government agencies. Theoretically, a CBDC should enable cheap, secure and real time transfer of value, be accessible without a bank account and be built on an open infrastructure to foster competition and innovation.

Even though, according to a report published by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in early 2020, 80% of Central Banks in the world are currently working on CBDCs (some are just at an initial research stage, though), Asia seems to be the place where CBDCs arise more interest.

In this session, I will analyze what CBDCs are and what they are not, the main CBDC projects in Asia and worldwide, and also what opportunities CBDCs will offer as well as how they will impact our daily lives in the context of a wider adoption of digital assets. I will also illustrate the directions of central banks and the emerging opportunities for startups.

A highly regarded voice on all things fintech and CBDC, Dr. Oriol Caudevilla Founded and Hosts the “A Digital Tomorrow” podcast, with over 10k followers on YouTube and whose video views reach an average audience of 1.5k viewers.

He also acts as a Board Director and Secretary General at the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum, and as chairman of the Private Digital Euro Working Group at the Digital Euro Association (D€A), Member of the Board of Advisors at Blockchain for Europe (BC4EU), Research Contributor at the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), Mentor at R3 (Singapore), Mentor at Cyberport (Hong Kong), Mentor at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP), FinTech Mentor at F10 Incubator & Accelerator (Singapore), and also FinTech Mentor at Rise by Barclays (London and Mumbai).

Oriol is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Hong Kong’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL).

Furthermore, he has published articles and been cited by international media outlets such as Reuters, Forbes Middle East, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Outlook India, China Daily, Asian Investor, Forkast News, and Cointelegraph.

Oriol is also a well-known international speaker: he was named Asian FinTech Speaker of the Year (2021) by FASTER Community and has participated in over 150 international conferences since 2020, talking about CBDCs, DeFi, the Metaverse, AI and the use of Blockchain in several industries, such as banking in general and also Islamic banking and finance.

More information about Oriol and his works are available at his Website and LinkedIn profile