Monetary policy is one of the most important EU issues. Last week Bratislava had yet again the honor of hosting some of the world’s leading experts in the subject at the conference entitled ‘The Future of Money 3.0’ organized by the F. A. Hayek Foundation in Hotel Devin on Thursday,  November 26, 2015.

The main topic was the difficult and volatile situation of the current monetary system. The experts from various fields of the economic and financial sector discussed in depth the structural problems associated with the current system and the potential developments that we may face going forward as classless society, monetary policies of ECB and FED or new technologies as Bitcoin.

The conference was successful in attracting around 120 guests eager to get informed and prepared for the outcomes that we may face in the near future. The goal of the event was to open discussion on the future of monetary policies within the Eurozone and problems of Euro and US dollar as main global currencies and to respond of new technologies to present monetary trends as well.

The keynote speaker of the event was the President and former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus who addressed the issue concerning whether we still could consider present monetary policies of central banks as real, useful and successful monetary policies. He called for responsibility and structural reforms similar to reforms which had to be realized in Eastern Europe after the fall of socialist system. He criticized present monetary policies but he tried to emphasize the necessity of changes in fiscal and economic policies of European welfare states as well.

The keynote speech was followed by the second panel dedicated to the following topic: “Do we need cash and what kind of new technologies to replace it?”

The keynote speaker of the second bloc the Vice Chairman of the National Bank of Slovakia – Ján Tóth. He delivered a speech concerning the cashless society in the context of present monetary and fiscal policy. Mirek Lukeš, CEO for Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland and Austria, MasterCard Worldwide, presented new trends and technologies which step by step eliminate cash from the society. He also emphasized the fact that these trends are more or less voluntary decisions of many individuals who see advantages of new technologies. Last speaker was Jakub Jedlinský, lecturer and consultant in cryptocurrencies, VŠE Praha who presented his views on bitcoin as a new form of currency. Moreover, he provided an overview of the bitcoin ecosystem as a solution to the contemporary world problems with currencies and as well as a new and progressive form of technology.

F. A. Hayek Foundation offered interesting mixture of opinions and views on the present monetary problems, future of money trends, and some monetary issues which are incorporated in many decisions of investors and entrepreneurs as well once again. We hope that we succeed once again.

We would like to thank all the participants, speakers and sponsors of the event: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and  MasterCard;  media partners Hospodárske noviny a aktuality.sk. We are looking forward to the next edition of the conference in 2017.