The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance-货币未来：数字革命如何改变

在当今数字经济的许多变化中，货币这一最基本的技术也遭到了冲击。康奈尔大学的Eswar Prasad试图在更广泛的背景下讨论这个问题。他认为，在过去的几十年里，虽然金融业出现了大量的数字创新，但在不久的将来，巨变仍一触即发，其影响将广触人类的社会、经济和政治样貌。


书名：The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance《货币未来：数字革命如何改变货币和金融》

作者：Eswar S. Prasad

简介：A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse.

We think we’ve seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar S. Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live.

Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force won’t be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Facebook and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk.

Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.