The future of money
Last month, Wired published a short opinion piece I wrote about the future of cash. The article focuses on “complimentary currencies,” DiY money that people use instead of established national currencies – especially in times like these, when national currencies seem unstable at best in many parts of the world. Here’s an excerpt:
Futurist Douglas Rushkoff, famous for correctly predicting the rise of social media, is trying to convince Craigslist’s Craig Newmark to create “craigbucks.” He thinks it’s the obvious next step in the evolution of money. “People could buy and sell things exclusively on Craigslist using craigbucks,” Rushkoff enthuses. “Sure they’ll want to keep their Visas and their MasterCards, but they’ll want a specialized, alternative form of cash too.”
The idea is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Economists already have a term for this kind of community-specific money; they’re called “complimentary currencies” and they naturally take root when conditions are right.
Read the rest at Wired.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:02 am
This is a rapidly developing megatrend, and it may accelerate as places like California declare total insolvency. Local currencies develop when the banking complex wakes up in a panic one morning and says “Sorry, you are just as hardworking as yesterday, but you’re all broke now.” Everybody frets for a few days, then says, “Hey Frank, I’ll put in a porch for you in exchange for some groceries,” and then local economies develop from that point onward.
I mean, who’s going to trust their economic health to the Federal Reserve much longer? Things are bound to go local and DiY.