While stressing that such outcomes are incumbent on widespread adoption, the BIS paints a possible future in which its ability to conduct monetary policy, assess the flow of money or even generate revenue on the currency it issues becomes limited.
The ability of central banks to gather data on money aggregates, or measurements of the money supply, could also be hampered should digital currency use become widespread.
On the subject of whether central banks should consider issuing their own currencies based on a distributed ledger, the BIS went so far as to acknowledge that some functions of a central bank could be rendered obsolete. Specifically, there may be no need for a central bank to issue currency if a distributed ledger is backing a widely used digital money.
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