Fintech expert Leda Glyptis, a true Sibos Insider, is a resident blogger for Sibos 2021, offering her unique take on this year’s event. This blog is part of a series released daily throughout Sibos week.</em></p> Here it is. My second and last Dispatch from the Front after the Future of Money flagship debate. I won’t lie. It was scary.It was amazing.I could feel my brain expanding with every exchange our heavy-weight speakers had (please tune in and listen to the recording, it’s worth it and this is, as ever, not a write-up). I learned a lot. But if I walked into the session with a deep sense of foreboding (and I did), I emerged with an urgent and fervent need to act to avert the worst-case scenario from materialising. So it worked, I guess. But man, it scared me.</p> Going into a discussion on the Future of Money with a focus on CBDCs and programmable money, I was thinking ‘digital bank notes are not a bridge too far from physical ones to be honest, but programmable money scares me.’Money is a tool we use to provide utility. It has never been static and won’t start now. The juncture we find ourselves in, however, is the moment where technological possibility has overtaken our thinking on utility or appropriateness. The tech is rapidly maturing. The conversation on what is right, fair or dangerous less so.Remember that moment in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum exclaims ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’ (thank you Twitter for that one).</p> In a world where climate change, poverty, overpopulation, and deepening socioeconomic and ideological divides are not going to go away, the ability to programme money could become a source for good – embedding triggers for access – or a terrifying force for evil – voters of a particular party finding their money is ‘no good’ on election day, as Brad Leimer terrifyingly described to bring the art of the possible to life. This space is, of course, posing a risk to the traditional business models of banks but it is also putting consumers at the mercy (potentially) of whoever is controlling the money supply – be it a central bank or a private entity (hello stablecoins).And as John Egan pointed out, the irony is that we bundle crypto and programmable money together because the tech underpinning them is similar, but the fundamental operating ideas of control couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.</p> So. If crypto is the rebel child of reducing control, programmable, centrally-issued digital currencies is the exact opposite, putting our future liberty and mobility in the hands of whoever is doing the programming. Today and tomorrow. By this point, I am terrified.</p> It’s not all bleak, as John reminds us. There is a world where things of value underpinning ‘currency’ can be environmental assets, energy, power, habitat tokens (reminding me of Theo Lau’s presentation the day before). The tech, John went on, is neither good nor bad. It just is. The rest is on us.So how do we make the choices that don’t lock our future into a dystopian horror movie?</p> Regulation. Real time proactive thoughtful engagement with the full spectrum of what can go wrong in this brave new world of ours. The possibility of an inclusive utopia is there. And so is the danger of an illiberal dystopia, starting with cash that becomes inaccessible when you try to spend it in a way that is not what the regime had in mind for you.And as your resident Greek, I can tell you this. Etymologically, a dystopia, is a bad place.A utopia, is a ‘nowhere’ place. So, play the probabilities here and accept that hope is not a strategy.</p> As we face into the future what are the things we know we have to work with?Digital is here to stay.Money will be public, private and reserve. It will be composite and we will see brand-related currencies.All this is in flight and, as Bin Ru Tan pointed out, you don’t want to govern too early and kill innovation, but you also don’t want to step in too late. Oversight is imminent and rightly so.Things are speeding up and we, as voters and financial industry decision makers, must make a series of decisions. Active, intentional decisions.The time has come to write our own future. Literally. Into the code that powers our money. And our freedom.</p>