[edward]

Central banks operate provide real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems. This allows transfers to settle in real time.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_gross_settlement

Domestic banks have accounts with the central bank and can move money using RTGS. If the central banks allowed individuals and non-bank companies to open accounts then they could use the RTGS to transfer money instantly.

There would be no blockchain, the central bank acts as a trusted third party. The central bank can see all transactions.

[darkmighty]

Exactly. In this case there's no point in being distributed. You have to trust the central bank anyways, so just let them handle the servers instead of wasting a colossal computing effort in verifying transactions or waiting whole minutes versus milliseconds to confirm transactions. You also get invulnerability to the likes of 51% attacks or "selfish mining" and ability to revert frauds or big blunders.

But I guess this is a good example of a new tech that reminds people that the basics are still not out of place.

I proposed a semi-centralized crypto currency with the same things in mind but based on existing fiat some time ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/altcoin/comments/1t6nu0/altcoin_prop...