Bernard Lietaer - The future of money

We know that the technological changes that have the most radical revolutionary impact on societies are those that change the tools by which people relate to each other. Fundamental shifts in civilisation have been traced back to the invention of writing, the alphabet and to the printing press. The breathtaking social, political and economic implications of the invention of the telephone, car, and television are classic examples of such shifts that occurred during the 20th century.

Changes in the nature of money will have at least as great an impact as any of the above examples. Money is our key tool for material exchanges with people beyond our immediate intimate circle. Of all the tools that can change human relationships, what is more central in a capitalist society than money? Capitalism uses the flow of money within the marketplace to allocate resources among participants in society. Under capitalism, money is not only the means but also the objective of the overwhelming majority of the exchanges. The internal combustion engine changed only the nature of our transportation system, and look at the results! In today's capitalist society, changing money would be equivalent to altering both the fuel and the underlying motivation for most of our actions.

Therefore, transforming the nature of our money is likely to have more far-reaching consequences than we can begin to imagine.

There are now hundreds of projects under way that are utilising new kinds of money, and creating just such a transformation.

Together they provide a strong indication that our very concept of money will change. Some of these schemes involve the most powerful organisations in the world and billions of dollars of investments. Others have been implemented on a shoe string by social activists in a dozen different countries, and still others were dreamed up by lonely 'cypher-punks' in lofts in Silicon Valley. My forecast is that 90-y5% of all these projects will not survive; but that