No. A CBDC would be issued by a central bank in the official unit of account, with its value guaranteed by the state in that country. Cryptocurrencies are issued privately and often without a key participant to guarantee their value. However, technologies upon which CBDC may be designed, could share a number of characteristics with technologies upon which many cryptocurrencies are based. Blockchain, on which Bitcoin is also based, is one of the technologies being tested in the Norwegian CBDC study. 

No. The introduction of a CBDC in Norway will require a number of legislative amendments and these require political anchoring in the Storting (the Norwegian parliament). Norges Bank’s study on CBDCs will result in an evaluation that provides the base for a recommendation as to whether a CBDC should be introduced, as well as a possible design. The final decision on whether to introduce a CBDC depends i.e on legislative amendments, that may still be distant in time. 

No. Norges Bank assumes that physical cash will continue to circulate in parallel with a CBDC. Cash has some characteristics that electronic payment instruments do not share and that contribute to an efficient payment system. For example, some persons do not have access to, or have problems using electronic payment instruments. In an efficient payment system, such groups must also be able to make payments in a satisfactory manner, by using cash, for example. It is banks' responsibility to ensure that cash is available to the public. Norges Bank's task is to meet banks' demand for cash. 

Any electronic payment will leave digital traces that in some cases can be used for monitoring. Like other central banks, Norges Bank is not tasked with monitoring payments made by individuals. Many central banks have therefore already decided that they will not have access to information about individual customers' CBDC payments or holdings. Norges Bank’s analyses assume that this will be the path also for Norges Bank. As with other forms of payment, it will be necessary to ensure that relevant rules are complied with, for example anti-money laundering rules. 

Norges Bank is currently looking into this. Norges Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks in Sweden and Israel, has already devised and tested a prototype for cross-border payments. In the long term, a CBDC may make it cheaper and more efficient to send money across national borders, but there are still many issues that need to be clarified before such payment solutions are introduced. 

It is too early to be specific on this, but Norges Bank assumes that a CBDC would be available as a means of payment on the most common payment platforms and that it would be simple to transfer money between a bank account and a CBDC wallet.

It is too early to say on which payment platforms a CBDC would be available, but the idea is that CBDCs can also be used for simple person-to-person payments via, for example, mobile phones.

Norges Bank has not decided on whether CBDC holdings should earn interest.

The purpose of a potential CBDC will be payment and not to be used towards saving/store of value. Norges Bank and many other central banks have assessed, for financial stability considerations, setting amount limits on CBDC holdings.