Currency is digital in nature
As the physical foundation of financial operation, it is economic operation on the specific social organization structure. The evolution process of human social organization form from low level to high level is simply a process from small to large in scale, from the initial settlement to City-states, then to the square country formed by the union of the city-states, and then united upwards to form a larger organization, the economic operation and even the channel network for currency operation have also expanded.
Within different social organizations, the channels of economic operation are mainly embodied in two aspects, one is the logistics channel, the other is the information channel. The efficiency of value transfer in the form of commodities depends on the efficiency of logistics channels, and the transfer of value in currency depends on the guarantee. The operating efficiency of the information channels.
The value body has both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of value. The basic value body in the human society and economy is a commodity. The premise of its establishment must also be the content of these two aspects, which is the use value and the exchange value. . Its qualitative value is use value, which is its natural attribute; its quantitative value is exchange value, which is the recognition and determination of the quantity of its value body by human consciousness. If the value of the value body cannot be quantified, it cannot be traded and operated. , It cannot become a commodity.
Currency is a commodity derivative, a value body that specializes in expressing quantitative value and carrying quantitative value—generally equivalent. The quantitative value of all commodities is homogeneous and therefore commensurable. Therefore, the currency that simply expresses the quantitative value becomes a value body that can be negotiated and exchanged with all value bodies in the economic category. The essence is to quantify value, which is a number. Therefore, the financial system is an information highway paved by numbers to improve the efficiency of commodity operation and thus the efficiency of the entire economy.
All currency forms are most suitable to present numbers under the historical conditions at the time, that is, the currency stock of any economic entity is a number. The difference lies in the way of carrying and recording, or use shells, grain, gold and silver and other physical objects, or use paper. Or use a computer network. In this way, three stages are naturally formed in the carrying form, the physical currency stage, the paper currency stage and the computer network currency stage.
In the first two stages, currency is scattered, granular, and dispersed in the hands of various economic entities. The upward structure of the financial system (currency issuance, management, and service provider) itself only provides currency and its operating channels. Either they are stored in upward institutions, or scattered in the hands of downward economic entities, and cannot exist at the two levels at the same time.
Moreover, the existing financial channels rely on the financial channels provided by the government and a large number of private local financial channels (private financial institutions) to form a global coverage. On the whole, the currency category is mapped to the commodity category. The overall volatility and risk depend on the correspondence between the two sets, and the risks of local concentration points and local channels depend on the specific environment in which they are located. Relative to the whole, there is generally no problem of a run, but relative to the local, a run may occur at any moment and its consequences are fatal.
The form and characteristics of digital currency under the background of high technology
In the initial primitive settlement period, the social organization was small and the members understood each other. The problem of information transmission was solved by a shout. Therefore, the record of economic behavior can be completed in the mind of each member, not necessarily To “knot knot notes.” It is conceivable that if there is currency, it can exist in the mind of each member and operate without the need for the physical existence of currency. In other words, the initial currency of mankind is intangible and digital.
The current digital technology has made the external form of currency lose its meaning. The carrying of numbers and the guarantee of credit have taken on a new form-the form of electronic networks. Currency has become the number itself, and it has become recorded in the computer network. A quota is no longer the piece of metal or the piece of paper that carries the numbers. Its model, in short, is a computer network platform and numerous ports connected to it. Each economic entity connects to the platform through the port of a mobile phone and a computer, and then controls its own account through instructions. Currency movement becomes an inter-economic entity. The amount allocated-transfer payment. In a sense, digital currency means only payment by transfer, instead of cash payment. It’s just that the transfer and payment of digital currency is completed through electronic instructions issued by mobile phones, computers and other ports. Compared with the traditional transfer payment mode, it is more global, safe and efficient. Based on this understanding, the author summarizes the following characteristics of digital currency:
(1) Unity
There is always an inherent trend of ultimate unification in the information network. As a digital currency platform, at least first of all, it is unified within a country. The digital currency platform integrates all financial institutions into one. This is technically possible and also reflects Great integration efficiency. In this way, the situation is achieved: a unified and unique currency category corresponds to the real economy category. This also means that production, distribution, transaction, consumption and other links are integrated at the currency level. The currency operations involved in these links are concentrated on this super network platform, which is only reflected in the transfer between different subjects.
(2) Public product attributes
In this mode, all members of society must have ports to connect to the Internet, otherwise they will be shielded from economic operations. Then this kind of network platform has become the most basic, most common and most important public facility in human society because it is the only, unified, and global currency operation platform. This is the most fundamental feature of digital currency. This is doomed to this super network platform must be a public product.
(3) Safety and efficiency
The macro and micro efficiencies brought by modern electronic network technology need not be repeated. The security it brings is not only reflected in the traditional data security aspect, but also improves the security of the entire financial system because of runs, bankruptcies, etc. Risks are all for individual institutions or markets in the financial system. This unified digital financial platform first exists as a whole, macroscopically, and has sovereign credit. Generally, there is no possibility of run or bankruptcy. Moreover, the efficient and transparent mechanism makes the supervision efficient, safe and stable.
(4) Bilinearity
Traditional currencies are separated from the upstream and downstream, that is, the overall mechanism of the currency system is separated from the microscopic individuals linked to the currency system. In general, currency is scattered, scattered, and granular, such as Gold and silver are piece by piece, coins are piece by piece, paper money is piece by piece, either in the hands of individual economic entities or deposited in the financial system.
If the currency becomes a pure digital state, then it has a topological structure, which is unified and contiguous. That is reflected on the overall level, but also on the micro-individual level. The overall mechanism of digital currency should be this two-line structure-the overall mechanism of the upper behavior network, and the nodes and ports of the lower behavior network. Currency seems to exist in both the network as a whole and the private accounts of economic entities allocated through ports. That is to say, in the overall view, currency is a total amount on the network platform. From a micro perspective, currency appears as the account of each economic entity. Medium and own quota.
The idea of building a digital currency platform
(1) Analysis of existing digital currency platforms
WeChat and Alipay can be described as existing veritable digital currency platforms. Their emergence essentially makes cash unnecessary, and the currency irreversibly evolves into the balance on the mobile phone. They have made very valuable explorations on the construction of digital currency platforms. Their shortcomings are as follows: First, they can’t cover all of them. The service functions are only for personal business, and they cannot provide enterprises with all-round financial services. Second, these two platforms belong to private capital and are not suitable for serving as the core link related to the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Such a core industry of extremely important strategic significance should be led by the government. Third, as a private capital, it cannot mobilize the resources of the whole society to build a unified, full-coverage super network.
(2) Constructing a new digital currency platform
In theory, we can integrate all information activities on an information network, and then build an information world that contrasts with the real world. Then there is no problem in establishing a unified and single financial network platform with the operation of digital currency as the core, no matter in terms of technology or mechanism. Therefore, we must be advanced in design concepts, and set the goal to establish a unified, unique, and comprehensive financial network platform that integrates all financial institutions and businesses. Fully demonstrate the overall mechanism properties of finance, and build a financial network platform into a large, basic public facility, and a high-speed rail network for value information-currency information.
Due to its prominent public product attributes, building a digital financial platform should also be the basic prerequisite for achieving high-quality economic development in my country. We also need to recognize the upward characteristics of the financial system. The construction of this super platform should be led by the government, in order to reflect the overall rationality and the overall interests of the whole society, to mobilize the resources of the whole society, and to build it into a true and comprehensive A network of public facilities for the whole society.
Maintain the openness of the network platform, prepare to integrate with credit investigation, taxation, commodity trading and other networks, and build a future super network platform that includes all economic information. And to achieve docking with existing financial institutions and financial platforms to prepare for overall integration. Moreover, under the premise of establishing a safe and effective firewall, it is necessary to maintain extensive and sufficient external connections to prepare the conditions for the internationalization of the RMB and lead the development trend of digital currency in the international financial field.
The digital renminbi (RCEP) issued by the People’s Bank of China was born in August 2020. Although it is still in the preliminary pilot stage, it will surely become a prairie fire in the near future and realize the Chinese version of the public product. A super large digital currency platform.
