Traditional financial infrastructure is built around “centralized ledgers,” where banks have managed ledgers of deposits and other financial products. On the other hand, “blockchain” and “distributed ledger” – technologies underpinning digital currencies such as “Bitcoin” – are considered as enabling to keep ledgers in a de-centralized manner without relying on a trusted third parties to manage ledgers.
The references for the speech can be found on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s website. *  *  *  The question asked of this panel is, “What have we learned since October 1979?” The evidence suggests that we have learned quite a bit.