The
cartels and state organs are frantically trying to co-opt, outlaw, corral or
control this disruptive technology.
To say that the future of money is
blockchain-based crypto-currencies and payment platforms is to state the
obvious nowadays. If this wasn’t the case,
then why are Goldman Sachs et al. (i.e. the global too big to fail banks)
rushing to patent their own proprietary versions of blockchain technologies?
Why are banks investing heavily in companies that are trying to establish a
global blockchain platform for banks?
The reason is that banks understand their
core reason to exist is threatened by peer-to-peer, decentralized payment
platforms and currencies. If payments
no longer need to be routed through a centralized trusted institution, then one
core function of banks disappears.
If
peer-to-peer lending and securitization become easier and cheaper due to the
blockchain, then banks’ function of allocating capital also vanishes.
Gordon White and I discuss The Future of
Money (and its connection to
meaningful work) (1:11 hrs; be forewarned we cover a wealth of topics, from
philosophy to higher education to gardening to creating value in an economy
that is being disrupted.)
Since money– the currency that serves as a
medium of exchange–no longer needs to be issued by central banks/states, central banks/states are also in danger of being
mooted/bypassed as enterprises and people realize they can escape the
relentless destruction of their purchasing power by inflation-seeking central
banks/states.
If you aren’t familiar with blockchain
technologies and crypto-currencies, and
how these innovations are disrupting centralized banking and state-issued
currencies, here are a few articles to start with:
The premise of the Bitcoin platform—a
decentralized, trustless, replicated ledger of transactions—is the virtual
opposite of the centralized, trusted, guarded, model of modern securities
processing, which has long relied upon DTCC, among others, as a central
authority,” reads a treatise the organization released alongside that canned
quote from its CEO. In other words, the DTCC realizes that it’s embracing an
existential threat.
