Ebaselgelt

Ebaselgelt is a fictional digital currency used in economics and finance teaching to illustrate how regulatory frameworks interact with new payment technologies. It exists solely in educational materials and does not correspond to any real financial instrument or jurisdiction.

Overview: In the thought experiment, ebaselgelt is issued by a central authority tied to a Basel III–style regulatory regime that requires minimum capital and liquidity for institutions dealing with the currency. The supply is fixed to mimic scarcity, and transactions are imagined on a distributed ledger with auditable records and privacy-preserving features. The currency is considered fully electronic with no physical form.

Etymology and naming: The term combines Basel, the Swiss financial center, with gelt, a Yiddish word for money, plus the electronic prefix e- to signal digital form. The name is intended to evoke a connection to European financial regulation and electronic payments without referencing a real commodity.

Use and implications: The scenario is used to explore implications for bank balance sheets, regulatory capital treatment, cross-border settlement, and monetary policy transmission. It provides a framework for teaching concepts such as credit risk, liquidity risk, capital adequacy, and the calibration of regulatory requirements for digital assets in a controlled, fictitious setting.

Status and reception: Because it is a fictional construct, ebaselgelt has no official valuation, market, or legal status. It is referenced in hypothetical case studies and classroom discussions rather than real-world markets or policy debates.