Central Bank Digital Currency and Privacy: A Randomized Survey Experiment

Privacy protection is among the key features to consider in the design of central bank digital currency (CBDC). Using a nationally representative sample of over 3,500 participants, we conduct a randomized online survey experiment to examine how the willingness to use CBDC as a means of payment varies with the degree of privacy protection and information provision on the privacy benefits of using CBDC. We find that both factors significantly increase participants’ willingness to use CBDC by up to 64% when purchasing privacy-sensitive products. Our findings provide useful insights regarding the design and the public’s adoption of CBDC.