For 300 years money has meant physical cash. Whether in the hand or in a bank, the idea of money has been a physical object. That is no longer true and nothing underlines how far we have moved on that journey than the huge focus at the moment on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Our conservative, risk-adverse central banks would not be so active in this area, whether working on ‘wholesale’ or ‘retail’ CBDCs, if we hadn’t reached a moment of real change.