Comment by roenxi

Kugman seems to be holding himself to a fairly low standard in this article for explaining himself - I can't figure out what he is trying to articulate unless he is trying to write an ironic headline. A key observation with blockchains is that the only thing they bring is the trust model. Otherwise, all their capabilities can be captured more efficiently with a database and a trusted central server.

Brazil seems to have introduced a system with low transaction fees that Krugman likes. Ok. If it has no trusted central authority then it is something that you can just bring over to the US, today, and use and an exciting future may be incoming. The Fed getting involved and researching CBDCs wouldn't do very much. But he seems to be selling the central role of the Brazilian government is playing here so I don't think that is what is happening.

If it has a centrally trusted institution then we've gone 50 or so years without discovering whatever this innovation is it which seems like it'd be bigger news than a blog post. The whole story here seems to be that Brazil has implemented something with marginally improved transaction costs in their financial system. That doesn't sound like a "future" to me; it sounds like the same technologies we've all known about for decades being used in ways we've known about for just as long. Whats the news in terms of novelty? Is he just saying he likes how Brazil manages their money? Why are CBDCs involved in this?