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"Programmable money" is, without doubt, one of the major buzzwords in the blockchain space in 2020. Even though everyone seems to talk about it, we still lack a clear definition and hence common understanding of this term. In this article, we present a taxonomy of programmable money. In particular, we argue that "programmable money" has to be differentiated from "programmable payments". To make this distinction as clear as possible, we develop a framework in which we decompose the payments value chain into three pillars: the contract execution system, the digital payment infrastructure, and the monetary unit.

Nine banking industry associations have submitted a letter to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in response to its proposal to introduce stringent capital requirements for banks looking to hold crypto-assets on their books. In June, the BCBS published a consultation paper that suggested that banks would need to hold $1 in capital for each $1 of Bitcoin exposure. The letter argues for a more nuanced taxonomy of various crypto-assets and their varying risk profiles that would take into account aspects such as the existence of a liquid, two-way market for some crypto assets.

The European Blockchain Association published a joint industry position paper on staking in a European Union (EU) regulatory context. To date, there is no uniform consensus on how this process and its various manifestations are to be defined in concrete terms, which has led to legal uncertainty, sometimes with considerable consequences. The paper aims to make a clear distinction between staking and lending depending on the actual underlying technical process, and to differentiate between the different types of staking.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a Fintech Note that recommends that global bodies work to develop common taxonomies that can inform global and cross-sectoral standards while improving data insights. Standards should be risk-based, with greater requirements on entities and activities that generate more risk. Crypto asset service providers that deliver core functions and generate key risks should be licensed, registered, or authorized.

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a technical paper on the ways in which stablecoins are architected and implemented. This includes a descriptive definition, commonly found properties, and distinguishing characteristics, as well as an exploration of stablecoin taxonomies, descriptions of the most common types, and examples from a list of top stablecoins by market capitalization. This document also explores related security, safety, and trust issues with an analysis conducted from a computer science and information technology security perspective as opposed to the financial analysis and economics focus of much of the stablecoin literature

This paper by Vipin Bharathan and Mani Pillai proposes a CBDC implementation approach based on two reference standards; the Token Taxonomy Framework (TTF) for tokens and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Common Domain Model (CDM) for contracts. The proposal's basic pattern is a contract network linked to a token network, bridging the gap between business contracts and the corresponding exchange of value.

A working group formed through the Digital Currency Global Initiative has set out to establish a common classification framework for all kinds of digital currency. Members of the architecture-focused working group introduced a new tool designed to overcome terminology problems during January 2022's DC3 conference hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The working group is building an ontology - an explanatory framework of terms and characteristics - that can describe exactly what constitutes different kinds of digital currency. The goal is to marry basic taxonomy concepts with deeper ontology concepts, or so-called "notions."

The first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under India's presidency discussed key financial stability and regulatory priorities. India urged member nations to understand the macro-financial implications of crypto-assets and recommended formulating a coordinated global policy. In that regard, the Indian Presidency has proposed a joint technical paper by the IMF and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) which would synthesize the macroeconomic and regulatory perspectives of crypto-assets. Interest was also expressed in building a common taxonomy and a systematic classification of the crypto-asset universe.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and the Payment and Financial Technology Development Center of the Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) published a report on the results of the study on the need to introduce the digital tenge. It is reportedly recommending making the central bank digital currency (CBDC) available as early as 2023 with a phased expansion of functionality and introduction into commercial operation until the end of 2025. Unfortunately the report won't be available in English until later this week, at which point I'll be able to verify some of the facts and plans. For example, the report is saying that a pilot was just wrapped up, but it's unclear whether it's a pilot of proof of concept, since I don't know the composition of the test users. If they're pulled from the general public, it is a pilot, but if the test subjects are limited to central bank staff, it's a proof of concept by my taxonomy.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and the Payment and Financial Technology Development Center of the Bank of Kazakhstan published the English version of their report on the second phase of their digital tenge central bank digital currency (CBDC) feasibility study.The second phase was comprised primarily of proof-of-concept work involving select financial institutions, merchants and final users. The report calls it a "pilot" but is silent on who the selected final users were. If they were central bank employees, it is a proof-of-concept by most CBDC exploration workflow taxonomies, but if users were selected from the general public, then it's a pilot. In any case, the report recommends a phased rollout starting in 2023 with a gradual expansion of its functionality and step-by-step introduction into production scale by the end of 2025.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published a jurisdiction-agnostic guidance note to inform how counsel may approach a legal opinion on the enforceability of collateral arrangements entered into under certain ISDA collateral documentation where the relevant collateral arrangement comprises tokenized securities and/or stablecoins. This guidance note sets forth (i) a basic taxonomy of common tokenization structures and (ii) a non-exhaustive list of key issues to consider when analyzing the enforceability of collateral arrangements involving tokenized collateral.

"The UTXO design of Bitcoin exhibits partially characteristics of a token-based system and partially characteristics of an account-based system. A discussion on the difficulty to implement the economic notion of tokens in the digital domain, along with an exposition of the design of UTXO, is given in order to discuss why UTXO-based systems should be viewed as account-based according to the classical economic notion. Besides, a detailed comparison between UTXO-based systems and account-based systems is presented. Using the data structure of the system state representation as the defining feature to distinguish digital token-based and account-based systems is therefore suggested. This extended definition of token-based systems covers both physical and digital tokens while neatly distinguishing token-based and account-based systems."

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) collaborated with Coin Metrics and Goldman Sachs to develop the framework, which classifies digital assets according to what they are primarily used for. It is hierarchical with three levels of classifications: classes, sectors, and subsectors.