Not really prescient. Cryptographic cash has been something that people have been talking about for a while, and there have even been startups trying to commercialize it. Chaum's ecash was invented in 1983, and he was in the process of trying to commercialize it when this was written (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash).

Bitcoin is just the first cryptocurrency that has actually managed to take off, but it's been a problem that cryptographers, and in particular cypherpunks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk), have been working on for a while.

Basically, what's happened is that this stuff that was kind of fringe and crazy back in the day, but people who were into it were really sure was the future, has actually made a major impact on the world.