[Eyght]

The current system just keeps track of inventory. Like when a warehouse inventory system says "15 Honda Civics currently in stock" it doesn't mean digital cars.

A digital currency system would make a digital representation of the actual money that could contain a bunch of information, like unique serialnumbers, creation date, expiration date, physical equivalent etc.

[shkkmo]

Except there is no 1-1 relationship between account balances and physical dollar bills. They are not "inventories" but records of balances and transactions. What would have to be added to our current of tracking of dollars digitally for it to qualify as a digital currency?

[Eyght]

When we pay with physical dollar bills, it's an exchange of unique notes with their own serialnumber. A digital currency would be the same thing, but electronic.

Imagine using GIT for accounting.

[shkkmo]

Why is a new currency needed for that? All I see is handwavy explanations with zero actual details about how a new digital currency would let us do anything that we can't do more easily without adding a new currency.

[Eyght]

Governments and central banks are doing it to try to continue the cash economy, which has been slowly dying for some time now (a death recently sped up by the pandemic). Cash has some unique benefits over numbers in an account, the primary perhaps being that it's independent of banks.