{ "title": "Book review a glorious future for money", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad", "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/index.md", "summary": "The Bank for International Settlements' Jon Frost reviews A Glorious Future for Money? by Eswar S. Prasad.", "sections": [ { "heading": "Publication and bibliographic details", "content": "- Review title: Book review a glorious future for money\n- Reviewer: JON FROST, head of innovation and the digital economy in the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements.\n- Reviewed book: The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance\n- Author of book: Eswar S. Prasad\n- Publisher: Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 2021, 496 pp., $35.00\n- F&D Magazine, September 2021\n- Read time indicator on page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read" }, { "heading": "Key findings and syntheses from the review", "content": "- Scope of digital disruption\n - Digital technologies are disrupting money itself, not just peripheral financial services.\n - Fintech has already produced large impacts including the dramatic growth of mobile money in East Africa and China, the emergence of peer-to-peer lending, and microinsurance.\n - Fintech has included hundreds of millions of new users in the financial system—particularly in emerging market and developing economies.\n- Cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies\n - The review describes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the distributed ledger technologies underlying them.\n - There is noted disappointment around their actual use in payments to date.\n- Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)\n - CBDCs are presented as one of the most far-reaching innovations.\n - Potential benefits listed:\n - Could serve as a backstop to privately managed payment systems.\n - Further enhance financial inclusion.\n - Improve monetary policy transmission.\n - Help fight corruption.\n - Potential risks listed:\n - Bypassing of banks.\n - Loss of privacy.\n - Orwellian oversight of citizens by authorities.\n - Mitigation: Risks can be mitigated through proper design and legislative oversight.\n- Breadth of coverage in the book\n - Sweeping overview of developments in payments, from specifics of Ant Group’s business to the e-krona project and Venezuela’s Petro.\n - Includes anecdotes such as ABBA singer Björn Ulvaeus’s battle against cash in Sweden and a quoted dismissal of regulatory sandboxes by Maria Vullo: “Toddlers play in sandboxes. Adults play by the rules.”\n - Discusses implications of fintech and CBDCs for cross-border payments and the role of the US dollar as a reserve currency.\n- Genre and comparative context\n - The Future of Money is positioned alongside Felix Martin’s Money: The Unauthorized Biography and Lana Swartz’s New Money.\n - Emphasis that the design of money is not merely technical but a deeply important societal issue." }, { "heading": "Policy implications and recommendations emphasized", "content": "- Issuance and non-issuance of CBDCs are both conscious policy actions.\n- To make the right choices, a broad dialogue with a well-informed public is key.\n- Proper design and legislative oversight are necessary to mitigate the risks associated with CBDCs." }, { "heading": "Additional reviewer and publisher notes", "content": "- The review is written by JON FROST of the Bank for International Settlements.\n- Opinions expressed in articles and other materials are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.\n- The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Bank for International Settlements.\n\nSource: IMF F&D Magazine page — Book review a glorious future for money (September 2021).\n\n---\n\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: JON FROST", "Published: September 2, 2021", "Review title: Book review a glorious future for money", "Reviewer: JON FROST, head of innovation and the digital economy in the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements.", "Reviewed book: The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance", "Author of book: Eswar S. Prasad", "Publisher: Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 2021, 496 pp., $35.00", "F&D Magazine, September 2021", "Read time indicator on page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read", "Scope of digital disruption", "Cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies", "Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)", "Breadth of coverage in the book", "Genre and comparative context", "Issuance and non-issuance of CBDCs are both conscious policy actions.", "To make the right choices, a broad dialogue with a well-informed public is key.", "Proper design and legislative oversight are necessary to mitigate the risks associated with CBDCs.", "The review is written by JON FROST of the Bank for International Settlements.", "Opinions expressed in articles and other materials are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.", "The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Bank for International Settlements." ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/index.md", "json": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/book-review-a-glorious-future-for-money-prasad/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-15T16:46:39.741Z" }