The drop in the valuation of Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies during 2018 may be a validation of the critical assessments of Roubini (2018) and Eichengreen (2018), or it may just be a blip in the development of a decentralised currency. The growing number of cryptocurrencies illustrates the large private demand for anonymised, decentralised financial innovations. It has led to discussions about ways central banks may – or should – react to these developments. The recent proposal from Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, called Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency (Lagarde 2018), exemplifies this ... (full story)