Thinking on the nature of money and banking seems to be changing at a rapid rate, led not least by the Bank of England issuing ever clearer descriptions of the landscape – “Money Creation In The Modern Economy” (Quarterly Bulletin, 2014 Q1). Z/Yen and Long Finance are at the forefront of a lot of this work as recognised by two pieces this year in Banking Technology. The first, Therese Kieve’s first publication, in conjunction with Michael Mainelli, covers the surveillance of the LIBOR markets.

This approach has attracted as much or more interest from litigators as it should from regulators or compliance officers. Equally, this approach, similar to one Z/Yen pioneered for equities surveillance in 2003 and published in 2006, can be used in the emerging foreign exchange scandal, as well as any other traded market. Z/Yen is also researching the application of blockchain technologies to consolidated tapes in financial services.

The second publication, written with Bob McDowall, who as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the States of Alderney is effectively the Finance Minister, looks quite positively at how bitcoin and blockchain technology can help governments improve economic performance.

Z/Yen is already working with one government, and in discussion with others, ranging from city councils to local government to national, as well as with larger multinationals, about how strategic economic performance can be enhanced with new monies. Much of this discussion is online at Long Finance’s Eternal Coin community – www.eternalcoin.net. So we go from “a Silk Road of Breaking Bad transactions”, or “quixotic libertarians damning profligate governments” to using new blockchain technologies for “Building Bit”.