S9 Ep30: Redefining the monetary standard

About this episode

This episode discusses the future of the fiat money system in the context of digital currencies and potential innovations in monetary policy.

The fiat money system has survived the Great Inflation, the global financial crisis, and a pandemic. But can it survive digital currencies? Bitcoin and the blockchain solved a genuine problem in computer science: how to stop people spending the same money twice. Forty years of successful inflation control means central bank money is stable; that is the stability in stablecoins, attempting to solve the volatility problem. What's next? What if the unit of account itself were indexed to consumer prices? Digitalisation might finally make that approach viable at scale. Price stability, by design. Will we still need cash? Maybe not now, But if you never use it, it may not be there if the blackout comes. The research behind this episode: Stracca, Livio. 2025. Redefining the Monetary Standard in the Digital Age: Digital Innovations and the Future of Monetary Policy. Springer Nature. To cite this episode: Phillips, Tim, and Livio Stracca. 2026. "Redefining the monetary standard." VoxTalks Economics (podcast). Assign this as extra listening. The citation above is formatted and ready for a reading list or VLE. About the guest Livio Stracca is Deputy Director General for International and…

People in this episode

Host: Tim Phillips

Guest: Livio Stracca

Topics covered

• monetary policy
• digital currencies
• stablecoins
• inflation control
• central banking
• cash usage

Keywords

• fiat money
• digital currencies
• Bitcoin
• blockchain
• price stability
• central bank
• cash

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: European Central Bank

Books & works: Redefining the Monetary Standard in the Digital Age: Digital Innovations and the Future of Monetary Policy

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