But what of those bill-packed status symbols in the age of electronic money?

Bitcoins are a form of electronic money not managed by a single company or government.

It provides conventional and electronic money transfer and payments services to thousands of businesses and consumers.

Banks create this electronic money through a simple accounting process whenever someone takes out a loan.

These have included creating electronic money through QE, which effectively drives down the value of currencies.

Alongside Fiat paper money came electronic money.

Origins Bitcoin is a form of electronic money that is not controlled by a person or institution.

That's how electronic money counters work.

But the 1844 law was never updated to apply to electronic money and still only applies to paper notes.

Now imagine if we updated the laws so that banks were prohibited from creating both paper and electronic money.

That indicates that more quantitative easing (creating new electronic money to buy bonds) is off the agenda.

As commercial banks reduced their lending and credit dried up, the central banks created new electronic money by buying bonds.

Grab, which is transforming itself into a consumer technology group, already offers loans, electronic money transfers, payments and food delivery.

Facebook is close to obtaining Irish regulatory approval for providing financial services in the form of remittances and electronic money.

Instead, electronic money could be created directly by the Bank of England and added to the central government's bank account.

Wilkins said the bank is studying digital currencies closely and is researching the conceptual merits of issuing electronic money itself.