New twist in cryptocurrency tale

PBOC is among some central banks that are pondering e-cash of their own, fresh regulations and standards

"In Mesopotamia at least metal currency that didn't physically exist was used ... In a sense, this imagined form of money, used to facilitate real exchanges, was a virtual currency. So, when people tell you that today's economy is very different to the economy of the past, citing the virtual payments made possible by digital technologies, tell them that is nothing new; that virtual money has existed ever since the economy was invented, following the agricultural revolution twelve thousand years ago and the creation of the first surplus."

- Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister, in his book Talking to My Daughter about the Economy - A Brief History of Capitalism