But if the new currency offers superior user-friendliness without excessive exchange rate fluctuations, such disadvantages may not carry sufficient weight. In the near term, it is perhaps easier to envisage that new currencies may be attractive for certain types of transactions, for instance, cross-border payments. They could of course take market shares from existing payment solutions, but would not entail a fundamental transformation of the financial system. What about credit and saving in a world where the private sector has abandoned the Norwegian krone? If bank money is replaced by a cryptocurrency whose quantity increases through “mining” and remains constant in the long run, no credit institution will be able create money by extending loans. Some consider this a guarantee against instability and crises. Yet, without banks to assume liquidity risk, credit may become more expensive. In order to raise a long-term loan, someone will have to be found who is willing to tie up their savings for just as long. A possible solution is the emergence of new institutions that take on the risk by making long-term loans and raising short-term funding in cryptocurrency. But they will be left standing without the backing of a central bank that can relieve some of the risk and intervene in a crisis. Perhaps the attributes of today’s credit market can be imitated if a cryptocurrency functions as a means of settlement between credit institutions, as central bank reserves do today. In that case, the cryptocurrency will replace the central bank’s settlement system.
If money such as Bitcoin or Diem become dominant in Norway, we will move closer to a new 4/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  financial system. Let me first point out that a complete eradication of the Norwegian krone requires that the government also uses a different currency for paying salaries and benefits and accepts it as payment for taxes. In the long term, one should be careful to rule out anything completely, but as it stands today, this does not appear very likely. Yet we can imagine an intermediate solution where the government continues to use the krone, while the private sector prefers one or more cryptocurrencies. For this to take place on a large scale, an infrastructure is needed so that the money can be used at more locations than today. Chart: How much does a cup of coffee cost? With many competing currencies in circulation, we will lose the Norwegian krone as a common measurement unit for what goods and services cost. A simple question about how much a cup of coffee costs may have a complicated answer. Prices must be stated in several currencies, and customers and merchants must agree on which currency should be used in the transaction. Wide exchange rate fluctuations can make this particularly demanding. Even with one cryptocurrency in the private sector, those with income in cryptocurrency who pay taxes in Norwegian kroner will incur an exchange rate risk.