| Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin: From Money That We Understand to Money That Understands Us Contributor(s): Birch, David (Author) |
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ISBN: 1907994653 ISBN-13: 9781907994654 Publisher: London School of Economics and Political Scie OUR PRICE: $28.45 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Money & Monetary Policy - Business & Economics | Banks & Banking - Business & Economics | Economic History |
| Dewey: 332.4 |
| Physical Information: 1.3" H x 6.1" W x 9.3" (1.45 lbs) 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Technology is changing money and this book looks at where it might be taking us. Technology has transformed money from physical objects to intangible information. With the arrival of smart cards, mobile phones and Bitcoin it has become easier than ever to create new forms of money. Crucially, money is also inextricably connected with our identities. Your card or phone is a security device that can identify you - and link information about you to your money. Dave Birch looks back over the history of money, spanning thousands of years. He sees in the past, both recent and ancient, evidence for several possible futures. Looking further back to a world before cash and central banks, there were multiple 'currencies' operating at the level of communities, and the use of barter for transactions. Perhaps technology will take us back to the future, a future that began back in 1971, when money became a claim backed by reputation rather than by physical commodities of any kind. Since then, money has been bits. The author shows that these phenomena are not only possible in the future, but already upon us. We may well want to make transactions in Tesco points, Air Miles, Manchester United pounds, Microsoft dollars, Islamic e-gold or Cornish e-tin. The use of cash is already in decline, and is certain to vanish from polite society. The newest technologies will take money back to its origins: a substitute for memory, a record of mutual debt obligations within multiple overlapping communities. This time though, money will be smart. It will be money that reflects the values of the communities that produced it. Future money will know where it has been, who has been using it and what they have been using it for. |
Contributor Bio(s): Birch, David: - David G.W. Birch is a director of Consult Hyperion, an IT management consultancy that specializes in electronic transactions. Described by The Telegraph as 'one of the world's leading experts on digital money', by The Independent as a 'grade-A geek', by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation as 'one of the most user-friendly of the UK's uber-techies' and by Financial World as 'mad', Dave is a member of the editorial board of the E-Finance & Payments Law and Policy Journal, a columnist for SPEED and well known for his blogs on digital money and digital identity. He is a media commentator on electronic business issues (having appeared on BBC television and radio, Sky and other channels around the world) and has been named by WIRED magazine as one of their global top 15 favourite sources of business and finance information. |