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Best Before? Expiring Central Bank Digital Currency and Loss Recovery

Author

Listed:
  • CHARLES M. KAHN
  • MAARTEN R.C. VAN OORDT
  • YU ZHU

Abstract

Physical cash enables payments in the absence of electricity or network coverage. Such offline payment functionality promotes the operational resilience and, particularly in developing countries, the accessibility of payments. Central banks are exploring issuing digital cash substitutes with similar offline payment functionality. Such substitutes could incorporate novel features, making them more desirable than physical cash. This paper considers automating personal loss recovery for offline digital currency balances through the introduction of an expiry date. Our results show this functionality could have a substantial positive impact on consumer demand for offline digital currency balances. We find an asymmetric impact on welfare of adjustments to the expiry date: small increases from the optimum cause little damage, but small decreases from the optimal expiry date can have a large negative impact. More information‐sharing between user devices and the central bank can improve loss recovery but has an ambiguous impact on social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles M. Kahn & Maarten R.C. Van Oordt & Yu Zhu, 2026. "Best Before? Expiring Central Bank Digital Currency and Loss Recovery," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(3), pages 787-819, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:58:y:2026:i:3:p:787-819
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.13208
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jonathan Chiu & Cyril Monnet, 2025. "On the Programmability and Uniformity of Digital Currencies," Staff Working Papers 25-18, Bank of Canada.
    3. Shalva Mkhatrishvili & Wim Boonstra, 2022. "What we know on Central Bank Digital Currencies (so far)," NBG Working Papers 01/2022, National Bank of Georgia.
    4. repec:ecb:ecbdps:202220 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Li, Jiaqi, 2023. "Predicting the demand for central bank digital currency: A structural analysis with survey data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 73-85.
    6. Charles M. Kahn & Maarten R.C. van Oordt, 2022. "The Demand for Programmable Payments," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-076/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Toni Ahner & Katrin Assenmacher & Peter Hoffmann & Agnese Leonello & Cyril Monnet & Davide Porcellacchia, 2024. "The Economics of Central Bank Digital Currency," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 20(4), pages 221-274, October.
    8. Remo Nyffenegger, 2024. "A proposal for a layer-2 CBDC on a rollup," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 543-571, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Systems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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