Head of Digital Assets for Asia Pacific at Mastercard: Widespread adoption of central bank digital currencies will be “difficult” at this time

According to CNBC, Ashok Venkateswaran, head of blockchain and digital assets for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, said that the difficulty with central bank digital currencies lies in adoption. Consumers are "very accustomed to using today's currencies, and there's not enough reason to have a CBDC right now. But if this was a country where the domestic payment network wasn't as strong, it might make sense to have a CBDC."