in the Internet of Things, and also the initiatives pursued by other central banks and private companies to develop new means of payment, like Libra, have triggered debate on the future of payments. In January 2020, the Governing Council of the ECB established a High-Level Task Force in order to advance joint work on CBDC.
In the course of 2017 the global VC pool both deepened, from USD 30 billion to USD 400 billion, and widened, with the proliferation of “initial coin offerings” or “ICOs” – virtual fundraising facilities for start-up investors.1 But in my view, the subsequent market plunge rather points to a fading fad.