Digital currency clears a path for helicopter money, says author

Visitors use digital yuan on their smartphones to buy discounted coffees at a Bank of Communications Co. booth at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China. — Bloomberg

Bahamas has the ‘Sand Dollar’, Sweden is developing the e-krona and China is piloting the e-yuan. The evolution of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, is set to get supercharged in ways that will have profound implications both for economic policy making and for the societies around us, according to a leading expert.

Cornell University academic, Eswar Prasad, who once led the International Monetary Fund’s China team, this month publishes a new book titled The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance, which takes an in-depth look at how our wallets are set to evolve.