St. Louis Fed Annual Report: The Blockchain Revolution

ST. LOUIS – The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released its 2021 annual report, “The Blockchain Revolution: Decoding Digital Currencies,” which examines cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology and decentralized finance, among other topics.

In the report’s main essay, Senior Vice President and Economist David Andolfatto and Assistant Vice President and Economist Fernando Martin examine the state of the payments system, how cryptocurrencies work, decentralized finance, and the potential benefits and considerations of a central bank digital currency.

The report also includes a message from St. Louis Fed President and CEO Jim Bullard, who discusses the importance of studying innovations in payment technologies. In a separate message, St. Louis Fed Board Chair Jim McKelvey details how vital the Bank’s thought leadership and research expertise are to being at the forefront of new topics affecting the economy.

In a section titled Our People, Our Work, readers can learn more about the Bank’s impact on the Fed’s Eighth District and beyond with interesting statistics like the number of students reached through educators participating in our economic education programs and the number of counterfeit currency notes withdrawn from circulation.

To view the 2021 annual report, see https://www.stlouisfed.org/annual-report/2021.