Given the dramatic changes in the world’s financial systems —cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and FinTechs — one could think it’s impossible to determine which one is more revolutionary.
But when we posed the question to Eswar Prasad, professor of international trade policy at Cornell University and author of “The Future of Money,” the answer came quickly.
“It’s blockchain technology, of course,” he told PYMNTS. “It’s the one truly fundamental innovation that is going to have a transformative effect in finance.”
“What bitcoin did in a very masterful way was to combine all these technological and conceptual innovations that really creates a bedrock for decentralized finance.”
Bitcoin was supposed to serve as an autonomous medium of exchange, Prasad said. That is, consumers could use their digital identities without a trusted third party, such as a central bank or a financial institution, serving as an intermediary. But that hasn’t happened, he added.
“It’s not worked very well in that function, so now we have a new breed of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, which create stable value because they’re backed by fiat currencies, and other cryptocurrencies that generates stronger anonymity,” he said. “But whatever happens with this whole world of cryptocurrencies, and there are some crazy ones out there, I think the blockchain technology will really be the true legacy of bitcoin.”
As for bitcoin, it…
