Given all the potential benefits of the distributed ledger, there's been some suggestion recently on central banks issuing traditional fiat currency in digital form. The CEO of Chain suggested in a recent speech at the International Conference on Policy Challenges for the Financial Sector (participants included central bankers from 90 countries, including Federal Reserve Chair Yellen, as well as officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Bank for International Settlements) that central banks should be running toward the opportunity.
Perhaps it's unsurprising that this is a message given by the CEO of a blockchain startup, but what's more interesting is the reaction of central bankers in the audience. Bloomberg reports that central bankers asked "sharp questions", rather than dismissing the idea out of hand.
It's not hard to see that there might be benefits to central banks operating a distributed ledger themselves (the issue of trust for a start), although this is a long way from the ideas of the creators of Bitcoin (the original Bitcoin paper is available here).
