What is 'Currency'? Exploring the History of Digital Money and the Duality of Currency and Assets (Episode 10 of 'So That's How Blockchain Works')

In this podcast, Yoshihiko Uchida, who has a background in banking supervision at the Bank of Japan and the Financial Services Agency and currently teaches blockchain at Shunan University, Yuya Sakai, a founder of a gourmet app who has built a Web3 business by combining blockchain with Web2 services, and Shinya Otsuga, deputy editor of the crypto media "New Economy," introduce essential knowledge about blockchain.

In this 10th episode, we will seriously consider the question, "What is currency?" based on the previous discussions about "token exchange."

In the first half, we organized the history of digital money, including cryptocurrencies. It began with the digitization of bank deposits, followed by electronic money like Suica, PayPal, and M-Pesa, which allows money transfers using just a phone number, and then Bitcoin, stablecoins, and CBDCs. We touched upon how digital money, which has primarily developed to enhance the convenience of "payments," has increasingly been recognized as an "asset" since Bitcoin's emergence. Additionally, we noted that while KYC (Know Your Customer) is almost essential in areas connected to existing finance, there may still be areas without KYC requirements.

The second half focuses on currency itself. Currency is a "tool for carrying value," and we confirmed that the more stable a political system is, the easier it is for currency with less intrinsic material value to circulate as a means of payment. We also discussed how managed currency systems stand at the intersection of social contract theory and corporations. Furthermore, we emphasized the importance of "will" that runs through nations, corporations, and tokens, and explored the perspective that "all currencies can become assets, but not all assets can become currencies" by examining why Bitcoin has no interest.

The next episode, the 11th, is scheduled to be released on July 28, 2026.