Economic Information Daily: How will the big changes in digital currency evolve?

In this major change that has not been seen in a century, are monetary changes inevitable?
50 years ago, then-US President Nixon announced the decoupling of the base currency, the US dollar, from gold, and the gold standard ended. Since then, the Bretton Woods system has collapsed, and the "Nixon shock" has far-reaching impacts.
Today, perhaps the biggest change in the monetary field since the end of the gold standard is quietly taking place: the development of networking has created a digital virtual space, and the emergence of digital goods, digital services and digital assets has given rise to digital currency.
At present, the international community is paying close attention to and conducting research and development of central bank digital currencies. Reducing dependence on the US dollar is the goal of many countries in developing digital currencies.
A recent survey by the Bank for International Settlements showed that 86% of central banks around the world are actively researching digital currencies. The European Central Bank hopes to launch a digital euro in four years. China continues to expand the participation and application scope of the digital RMB pilot, and has currently opened nearly 21 million digital RMB personal wallets.
New developments have brought about new questions of the times: Since current currencies can be decoupled from gold, with the rise of digital currencies, can they also no longer be associated with "paper money" or "sovereign legal tender" itself? Will digital currencies replace the US dollar as the world's currency in the future?
To answer these questions, perhaps we should return to the essence of money. There is a view that money originates from debt and is a debt certificate issued by a country. As a unit of measurement for debt relations, money and national credit are inseparable. Especially after the end of the gold standard, money is based on the support of the entire country's tradable wealth and is a kind of credit and confidence.
Backed by the credit of the U.S. government and with its strong economic value, the U.S. dollar has dominated world finance for decades as the world's number one reserve currency.
However, changes in the form of currency do not mean changes in the international monetary system. Although the U.S. dollar has caused dissatisfaction around the world by relying on its hegemonic position and its "flooding" monetary policy, the emergence of blockchain technology has made decentralization possible, and the financial credit system based on the U.S. dollar is facing challenges, but there is currently no currency that can replace the U.S. dollar's status as a reserve currency and an international payment currency.
Zhang Tao, former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, believes that it is "difficult to predict" how the international monetary system will evolve after the emergence of central bank digital currencies. The acceptance of reserve currencies is often accompanied by structural changes, including establishing policy credibility, establishing the rule of law, and forming markets with depth and high liquidity denominated in the same currency. Therefore, changes in the international monetary system are likely to be very slow.
However, Zhang Tao also pointed out that in the long run, widely available central bank digital currencies, coupled with strong network externalities, can make the transition to reserve currency status happen faster. (Golden Finance)