What will central banks do if digital tokens replace money?

Monetary authorities should plan for a blockchain-led revolution

- ANDY MUKHERJEE

With mainstream investment products finding a second home on internet blockchains, it's a good time to ask what role central banks would play if everything they have learned while policing double-entry bookkeeping over the last 350 years becomes irrelevant.

The techno-anarchist vision behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was to free the financial well-being of individuals from the clutches of large custodial institutions and the monetary mandarins supervising them. That utopia never materialized, but the underlying technology is fast being embraced by traditional banks and asset managers. There's plenty of appetite. Now that apps have made investing easy, Millennials and Gen Z refuse to accept that private banks will hawk unlisted unicorns to their wealthy parents, but not to the actual users of the products and services of these new-age startups. Why should the lumpiness of private equity or private credit get in the way of mass access?