Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin: From Money that We Understand to Money that Understands Us (Perspectives)

This time though, money will be smart. The use of cash is already in decline, and is certain to vanish from polite society. To see where these developments might be taking us, David Birch looks back over the history of money, spanning thousands of years. With the arrival of smart cards, mobile phones and Bitcoin it has become easier than ever to create new forms of money. 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. 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 author shows that these phenomena are not only possible in the future, but already upon us. 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. He sees in the past, both recent and ancient, evidence for several possible futures. The newest technologies will take money back to its origins: a substitute for memory, a record of mutual debt obligations within multiple overlapping communities. Since then, money has been bits. Your card or phone is a security device that can identify you – and link information about you to your money. Future money will know where it has been, who has been using it and w

"David Birch brings out in rich and lucid detail the full historical journey money has been undertaking and the technological revolutions it has encountered en route. Historical scholars, technologists, monetary economists and policy makers will all find something in here to hold their attention, to reshape their view of history or technology, finance or policy." From the foreword by Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist of the Bank of England and member of the Monetary Policy Committee

Dion F. Lisle said An easy guide to Money, Past, Present and Future.. Having heard David speak at many Fintech conferences and spoken to him directly over coffee as well as an occasional beer, this book is like a conversation with Dave. Intriguing, a wee bit snarky, very engaging and completely enlightening. The best part is I always come away smarter. Dave adro. Gunnar Peterson said From there he distills the key themes around what makes them useful such as use as a medium of exchange. A signature of Dave Birch's work is his ability to trace the contours of the impact from new technologies inside of an historical context. In this book he does a deep dive of what drove financial innovation for a wide variety of cultures across the centuries. From there he distills the key the

Birch is a director of Consult Hyperion, an IT management consultancy that specializes in electronic transactions. 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 fa