From bitcoin to “digital renmimbi”: monetary sovereignty, financial security and China´s likely new financial order

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2177-5230.2020v35n77p553

Abstract

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 with the aim of being a private, non-institutional, free from government discretion currency. It has never been successful as such, but it has proved to be a means to transfer rights outside the surveillance and control of national and international authorities. Therefore, the Chinese government, extremely conscientious of its monetary sovereignty, considered bitcoin a threat to national financial security, repressing its use. Nevertheless, it identified in bitcoin´s technologies an opportunity to create a government digital currency. The outcome was the institution of the “digital renmimbi” (e-RMB), with which it intends to increase the speed and efficiency in the execution of internal policies, to control this new modality of commercial transactions and, if feasible, to erect the bases of a new China-centered financial order. 

Author Biographies

Daniel Santos Kosinski, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Doutor em Economia Política Internacional pelo Programa de Pós Graduação em Economia Política Internacional (PEPI) do Instituto de Economia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, 2015-2019). Ex-pesquisador do Núcleo de Avaliação da Conjuntura do Centro de Estudos Político-Estratégicos da Escola de Guerra Naval (2016-2019). Pesquisador do Laboratório da Conjuntura de Políticas Públicas de Direitos Humanos à Cidade (LDC/NEPP-DH/UFRJ). Autor dos livros "O Governo JK e as raízes getulistas da orientação do capitalismo no Brasil" (Ed. Prismas, 2015) e "Bitcoin e criptomoedas: a utopia da neutralidade e a realidade política do dinheiro" (Ed. UFRJ, 2020).

Valter Duarte Ferreira Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Atualmente é professor associado de Ciência Política da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro e da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Tem experiência e publicações nas áreas de Ciência Política e Epistemologia, com orientação interdisciplinar, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: teoria política, política brasileira contemporânea, epistemologia, instituições políticas, valores e capitalismo. 

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Published

2020-12-07