IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2609.27727.html

Sovereign Grassroots Currencies: A CBDC Architecture for Credit and Monetary Policy (Full Version)

Author

Listed:
  • Ehud Shapiro

Abstract

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is central-bank money in digital form, held by the public. Leading designs have two limitations: conversion from bank deposits into CBDC can accelerate deposit flight, requiring safeguards, and the CBDC stays outside credit creation and monetary-policy operations. Here we present a CBDC architecture based on grassroots currencies that overcomes these limitations. The architecture has three components: (1) Money: sovereign grassroots coins, which are digital debts of one unit of fiat currency issued by the central bank, constituting a direct CBDC; (2) Credit and Liquidity: non-sovereign grassroots coins, which are digital debts of one unit of the same fiat currency, redeemable at par, that can be issued by any person, natural or legal, thus adding credit; and (3) Interest: grassroots bonds, sovereign and non-sovereign, adding maturity and thus interest, standard banking instruments, and the central bank's instruments of monetary policy. The central bank can therefore lend, absorb liquidity, set its rates and buy and sell securities in the coins and bonds the public holds, choosing the counterparties and terms of its credit operations, and without converting bank deposits into newly issued central bank money on demand. We prove that the arbitrage-free price of any non-sovereign grassroots coin whose issuer redeems it on demand is one unit of the fiat currency. The central bank can choose to deal with any counterparty, not just banks, and we argue that the central bank's interest rates on lending and bonds bound from above and below the corresponding interest rates of its counterparties. Sovereign and non-sovereign grassroots coins and bonds have been implemented and tested on a small scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Ehud Shapiro, 2026. "Sovereign Grassroots Currencies: A CBDC Architecture for Credit and Monetary Policy (Full Version)," Papers 2609.27727, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2609.27727
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.27727
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abad, Jorge & Nuño, Galo & Thomas, Carlos, 2025. "CBDC and the operational framework of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raza, Hassan & Siddiqui, Danish Ahmed, 2026. "A Systematic Review of Retail CBDC Design for Financial Inclusion and Payment System Modernization," EconStor Preprints 341059, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Caccia, Enea & Tapking, Jens & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2024. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy implementation," Occasional Paper Series 345, European Central Bank.
    3. Bindseil, Ulrich & Senner, Richard, 2024. "Macroeconomic modelling of CBDC: a critical review," Working Paper Series 2978, European Central Bank.
    4. Sebastian Infante & Kyungmin Kim & Anna Orlik & André F. Silva & Robert J. Tetlow, 2023. "Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies: Implications for Banking and Financial Stability," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-072, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Georgakas, Ioannis, 2025. "Central Bank Digital Coins (CBDCs) and Monetary Sovereignty: Opportunities and Risks in the European Context," MPRA Paper 124457, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Lorenzo Burlon & Manuel A. Muñoz & Frank Smets, 2024. "The Optimal Quantity of CBDC in a Bank-Based Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 172-217, October.
    7. Ferrari Minesso, Massimo & Siena, Daniele, 2026. "Private money and public debt. U.S. Stablecoins and the global safe asset channel," Working Paper Series 3174, European Central Bank.
    8. Alberto Di Iorio & Anneke Kosse & Ilaria Mattei, 2024. "Embracing diversity, advancing together - results of the 2023 BIS survey on central bank digital currencies and crypto," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 147, November.
    9. He, Liang & Jiang, Ruiqi & Wang, Chao & Yao, Yue, 2026. "Antecedents of the continuance intention to use CBDCs: Evidence from the e-CNY," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    10. Jwa Emma Said & Jan Lánský, 2026. "Designing Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Systematic Literature Review of Trade-Offs Between Security, Privacy, and Financial Stability," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-31, May.
    11. Altavilla, Carlo & Boucinha, Miguel & Burlon, Lorenzo & Adalid, Ramon & Fortes, Roberta & Maruhn, Franziska, 2026. "Stablecoins and Monetary Policy Transmission," CEPR Discussion Papers 21321, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Ilya N. Gurov & Ivan V. Devyatov, 2025. "Digital Ruble: What Awaits Consumers of Financial Services?," Population and Economics, ARPHA Platform, vol. 9(3), pages 173-197, October.
    13. Dirk Niepelt, 2025. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Monetary Architecture," Diskussionsschriften dp2509, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    14. Magin, Jana Anjali & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2025. "Cash or Cache? Distributional and business cycle implications of CBDC holding limits," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Bindseil, Ulrich & Marrazzo, Marco & Sauer, Stephan, 2024. "The impact of central bank digital currency on central bank profitability, risk-taking and capital," Occasional Paper Series 360, European Central Bank.
    16. Hemingway, Benjamin, 2025. "The role of central bank digital currency in an increasingly digital economy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    17. Adiya, Bayarmaa & Dong, Yuan, 2026. "The effects of interbank market on central bank digital currency and transmission of monetary policy," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    18. Catalin Dumitrescu, 2025. "CBDC Stress Test in a Dual-Currency Setting," Papers 2511.13384, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2025.
    19. Murakami, David & Viswanath-Natraj, Ganesh, 2025. "Cryptocurrencies in emerging markets: A stablecoin solution?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    20. Ozili, Peterson K, 2024. "Thinking Fast and Slow about Central Bank Digital Currencies," MPRA Paper 120774, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2609.27727. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.