Over 30 years ago, in a January 1988 cover story emblazoned with a phoenix hovering over a paper-money inferno, The Economist offered this semi-prophetic vision of currency:
That piece stoked nationalist fears, and perhaps globalist hopes, about an international currency that could one day be an alternative to fiat limited by borders. Far from quaint, the currencies listed by The Economist are still very much in use with no signs of going anywhere, though those nationalist fears have perhaps been inflamed over the last decade-plus with the rollout of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and other cryptocurrencies. When it comes to crypto, nations have largely remained on the sidelines, except when acting as reactive regulators to these private first movers.