The Orkney Slew and Central Bank Digital Currencies

This essay presents a parable recently discovered in a Yale University Library. Interpreting the parable leads to a discussion of central bank digital currencies and the process of policy formation. Many central banks around the world are cooperatively experimenting with cross-border interoperability of digital currencies. These experiments are motivated by the idea of building a global network—an infrastructure—to improve global supply chains and large value cross-border payments. While we do not suggest that such an infrastructure is necessary at this moment, we do argue that cross-border experimentation is necessary