Like prospectors during the gold rush, I want to take you on a journey to uncover the risks, the gold, and possibly the fool’s gold, in issuing a central bank 1 I am thankful for the assistance of Amber Wadsworth in preparing this speech. 2 I spoke about our banknote innovation in 2014 “Brighter Money – enhancing innovation and embracing  heritage”.
3  digital currency. I’ll start by describing exactly what I mean by a central bank digital currency. I will then explore how issuing a central bank digital currency could impact some of the core central bank functions. I address three key questions: • • •  What could issuing a central bank digital currency mean for currency distribution?