The fact that the historical development of payment systems has been driven by private initiative, not state action, is often overlooked.

Some Basics of Currency Provision: Private commercial banks have been providing trusted money to the public for hundreds of years, in the form of banknotes (where allowed) and transferable deposit balances, as an integral part of their business model.1 Economically, money balances are a private good: they are rival in consumption (you and I can’t both simultaneously spend a given banknote or deposit balance) and excludable in supply (you and your bank can stop me from spending the funds in your wallet or account) (White 1999: 89).2 Accordingly, the market does not inherently fail to provide money efficiently.