Bitcoin was created by libertarian-minded programmers with a deep suspicion of central banks and the national currencies they issue.
Yet it is central banks that are doing some of the most ambitious work of late in trying to harness the technology introduced by Bitcoin.
The central bankers do not want their institutions to own or use Bitcoin itself. Instead, they hope they can use the decentralized method of record-keeping introduced by Bitcoin — known as the blockchain or distributed ledger — to complete and record transactions in the real economy more efficiently, quickly and transparently.
The most enthusiastic central banks — including the Bank of England and the People’s Bank of China — have discussed issuing their national currencies onto some sort of distributed ledger, a name that comes from the concept of several parties keeping records simultaneously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/business/dealbook/central-banks-consider-bitcoins-technology-if-not-bitcoin.html?ref=technology&_r=0
