Very interesting talk. I'm not sure how I feel about the digitalization of money. Much like my distaste for electronic voting, I like to have a hard version of money. It's easy enough to overspend when money has been reduced to plastic cards, so what happens when even the cards are gone?
The Future of Money
24th Nov 2011Listen to the audio (full recording including audience Q&A)
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RSA Thursday
Until a couple of years ago, most people would have thought that cash was vanishing, albeit slowly, because of cheques and plastic cards, internet banking and PayPal. But we now know that the technology that will consign cash to the empty jar of history is not any of those, but the mobile phone. Around the world from Kenya to the Philippines, from California to the UK (where Orange has just launched its first Oyster-style tap-and-go phone with Barclaycard) the evidence is compelling.
If we do away with notes and coins as the means of exchange then the cost of transacting in alternative currencies falls. If your currency choice is just a menu on your mobile phone, then why would you choose to get paid in Sterling, or Euros, or gold, or BA Miles or Tesco Clubcard Points?
Join digital money expert Dave Birch at the RSA as he explores the implications of a cashless future.
Speaker: Dave Birch, specialist consultant and media commentator on electronic business issues, and director, Consult Hyperion.
Chair: Diane Coyle, vice-chair, BBC Trust and managing director, Enlightenment Economics.
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