In 1992 the Bank of Finland, the country’s central bank, launched a curious card called Avant. The money stored on an Avant card was backed by the Bank of Finland rather than a commercial bank, which made it, the bank claims, the world’s first central-bank digital currency. Declining cash usage, the rise of cryptocurrencies and Facebook’s possible launch of a …
Editor’s Note: Emily Parker is an executive director at CoinDesk, a former policy advisor at the US State Department and writer/editor at The Wall Street Journal. China’s digital yuan is poised to make its debut on the global stage this week, with foreign athletes and others at the Beijing Olympics able to use it for the first time. Fanusie said …
