From the Marshall Islands to Russia, it seems everyone's on board with the year's hottest trend: digital currency. Following the boom and (partial) bust of various private cryptocurrencies over the last six months, several central banks are now seriously considering introducing their own national digital currencies in the near future. These currencies won't just be bit players in a field dominated by the likes of bitcoin; instead, the central banks' entry into the crypto game could have a significant effect on individual customers, commercial lenders and the international monetary system itself. From the Physical to the Digital Money emerged independently in every corner of the world, but the British Empire was especially influential in laying the groundwork for many countries' modern financial systems. In response to the onerous task of transporting gold to make payments, gold merchants in the United Kingdom began to issue exchange notes — in effect, paper...