Cyber Money as a Medium of Exchange

Electronic money constitutes (for the time being) the most recent innovation in payment instruments. The extent to which the further spread of electronic money might have consequences for monetary policy depends not least on the actual demand for electronic money. Numerous studies have sought to answer this question. However, those studies deal for the most part with the expected spread of electronic money in over-the-counter (OTC) transactions. As far as further developments in network money are concemed, though, it has not been possible to gain anywhere near as much in the way of insights. This is particularly amazing since from a monetary policy perspective network money, in particular, threatens the central bank's monopoly on money creation ...