Pivotal Role for Gold in Digital Money Systems Seen

摘要

Gold can play a key role in the promotion and operation of digital money Systems as these paperless monetary systems grow and thrive, according to Forrest H. Capie of London's City University Business School.Speaking at the Nikkei Conference in Tokyo last October, Capie, Professor of Economic History, Department of Banking and Finance, said that because of gold's long history as 'money' it could help build trust in new digital monetary systems. "The main advantage for gold is that it does possess all the features of money. Even after it was demonetized, in the 1970s, it remained an important reserve asset not only for the Federal Reserve but also for the European Central Bank and others," said Capie. "As a store of value, gold has always been a good investment instrument. The real problem has been to insert gold into the purses of end-users. Our argument is that gold can now be circulated and be an efficient medium of exchange with the help of payment system technology in general and electronic money technology in particular."