When it comes to financial markets, the US dollar remains the world’s dominant currency, and with it comes the commanding presence of Washington in the global economy. Seismic shifts in the international order challenging US dominance, however, are extending across well beyond the political and security realms, and impacting the financial sphere as well. While the dollar’s strength and the influence of the United States in the financial sphere remains, the global financial order that Washington was instrumental in establishing is being challenged with the rise of digital money. Certainly, new technologies are enhancing efficiencies of financial transactions, but they are also leading to a reassessment about the power of money in its digital future.

In this collection of essays on rethinking the power and influence of digital money, the Wilson Center’s Geoeconomics Initiative and the Digital Assets Forum seek to address how reimagining money could shape not only the global financial landscape, but also be part of the emerging new financial order worldwide. Digital money can lead to greater efficiencies in transactions, but the price to be paid can be high, ranging from data surveillance and to breach of privacy. The financial revolution that comes with digital money can lead to tremendous opportunities in emerging markets and greater access to capital, but the volatility of certain instruments cannot be ignored.

Assessing the risks and rewards of digital money can no longer be seen as the purview of central banks, but will have far-reaching political, social, and diplomatic as well as economic consequences. The goal of the following essays is to spark a debate on addressing those challenges as well as opportunities in some of the key markets in the world.