That's more a conservative American protestant interpretation. If you read the book it is couched in flowery symblic imagery and tying it to any particular world event is difficult. It says nothing about any "world currency" for instance. It speaks of the mark of the beast (typically taken to be Caesar) and that to buy or sell you had to have the mark of the beast. Even if one see the beast/Caesar as a type of the last days, one must quickly see that the Protestant interpretations are but one of dozens of possible readings. Take pretty much any period of the last 150 years and you'll find at least some Protestant theologian claiming Revelation talked about it in depth.