Major central banks have joined forces with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to study potential use cases for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

The group will include central banks of Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, the U.K. and Japan, as well as the European Central Bank (ECB) and will be chaired by head of BIS' Innovation Hub, Benoît Cœuré, and Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of England's deputy governor.

The members will assess the "economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability" of CBDCs and will share the findings.

The topic of central bank digital currencies gained momentum after Facebook unveiled its cryptocurrency Libra in June 2019.

The social media giant's cryptocurrency could pose post a challenge to cross-border payments, monetary policy and even financial sovereignty, as Facebook is already in the hands of over a quarter of the world’s population.

These concerns have likely forced central banks to come together to study digital currencies. The People's Bank of China also stepped up research into creating its own digital currency following Facebook's announcement.

All this could end up boosting bitcoin's appeal as an anti-establishment asset - part of a decentralized monetary system with less government intervention.