Here's a utopian image (or perhaps dystopian, depending on the point of view) to ponder: Central banks have switched from issuing money in the form of cash to releasing digital currency and registering transactions on a distributed ledger along the lines of the Bitcoin blockchain. Because it doesn't require much of an up-front investment -- the clearance and transaction recording system is decentralized -- the central bank is now able to do something it has never done, namely accept deposits from private citizens, providing an ultimate safe haven for their savings and making private banks, with their fractional ... (full story)