Money Will Not Be Revolutionized.
By Nouriel Roubini
What does the future hold for money and payment systems? While it will surely feature unprecedented technologies, foreseeing the full picture requires historical context.
Traditionally, money and payment systems have run on a combination of base money (issued by a central bank) and private-sector money, typically issued by commercial banks through demand deposits, credit cards, and so forth. Since newer fintech payment systems such as Alipay, WeChat, Venmo, or PayPal are still linked to bank deposits and credit cards, they represent evolution, not revolution.
As for Bitcoin and other decentralized crypto assets, none has become a currency because none is a unit of account, scalable means of payment, stable store of value, or numeraire (a benchmark for other similar assets). El Salvador went so far as to declare Bitcoin legal tender, but, at best, some 5% of transactions for goods and services are settled with it.
Read the full Project Syndicate article.
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Nouriel Roubini is a Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Business and the Robert Stansky Research Faculty Fellow.