Roberts, executive editor of news site Decrypt, probed da Ponte about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), since the PayPal vice president said he has met with central bankers around the world.

“It absolutely makes sense that central banks will issue their own tokens,” he said. But he did not accept the common view that only one out of stablecoins or CBDCs would become dominant. Sometimes we position the debate as CBDCs versus stablecoins, but it’s a bit of a fake debate. There is no trade-off. We think they will co-exist.”

In da Ponte’s experience, central bankers have two priorities: financial stability and universal access. He could see plenty of ways to achieve stability with digital currencies, not only by backing a stablecoin with fiat currency but potentially by backing one with a CBDC.

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And digital currencies could help expand access to the financial system, he said. He pointed out that one county in California, near where he lives, is a “banking desert”: there are no physical branches. That might not matter in a world where CBDCs have been rolled out across the country, he suggested.

But da Ponte was clear that there is a lot more work to be done. “On the subject of CBDCs, there are a lot of Powerpoints written, but not a lot of code written.”

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