Cash: lifesavers of freedom. Cryptomies may have failed as coins, but they have signaled a weak link in the payment system that must be addressed. "Our current payment system is not without failures," said Benoît Coeuré, member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Jaqueline Loh, chairman of the Markets Committee of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in an article opinion for the Financial Times. Despite the fact that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are proving to be "the same as gambling in a casino", they are detecting fundamental vulnerabilities in our current system in relation to the remittance market and the payments of cross-border retail operations. The international remittance market is an important source of income for many developing countries and, therefore, a fundamental parameter for economic development. Why are remittances so important? Because its contribution to the world economy is enormous: the volume of remittances is three times higher than the total budget for development cooperation, the first amounted to USD 429 billion in 2016, according to the World Bank, and the second to 142 600 million in the same year (OECD). Today, both remittances and international business transactions involve high costs, slow processing times and, often, high commissions when the service is provided by a third party (eg, Western Union). According to Coeuré and Loh, this is the Achilles heel of the system. "A digital variant of the money issued by the central bank in the form of tokens would have the potential to rationalize many of the cumbersome liquidation and payment processes that are currently necessary to conduct operations with foreign securities and exchanges." This digital version would not replace cash, but could improve the current system by offering almost instantaneous, transparent and direct access to payments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, as long as cash continues to be used as widely as today (usage continues to increase in many parts of the world), the development of digital currencies issued by central banks will remain a secondary issue for governments. But, as Coeuré and Loh point out, it is an issue that will need attention in the future. Since cash is the only currency that is also a public good, central banks should continue to monitor progress in the digital payments sector. If the cash disappeared, the population would suddenly become "totally dependent on commercial money and trust in the currency, which is a fundamental public good, would be based on the solvency of commercial entities and specific payment technologies." As the Governor of the Swedish Central Bank, Stefen Ingves, explains very well in a recent article, this poses a risk that must be taken into account because, when things go wrong, can we really rely on private companies to maintain the cash flow?
