[enjeyw]

A lot of existing digital money is more akin to a widely-redeemable voucher issued by a private company than it is to physical cash. You're free to use it in ways that are sanctioned by that issuing company, but if you want to do something like spend it with a competitor, you might run into road-blocks.

In places like the US, this feels like an academic difference, but that's because non-bank digital payments haven't really consolidated yet.

In Kenya, where one mobile phone company (Safaricom) has a 98.8% market share of digital payments, the situation is very different- effectively on private company has a monopoly on money. They can and do use this monopoly power to their advantage.

A CBDC attempts to shift money back to being a public good like physical cash, by guaranteeing interoperability between issuers, rather than everyone paying with casino chips.