Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin

Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin PDF Author: David Birch
Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
ISBN: 190799467X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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

Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin

Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin PDF Author: David Birch
Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
ISBN: 190799467X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book

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

Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin

Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin PDF Author: David G. W. Birch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781907994661
Category : Cash transactions
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


The Currency Cold War: Cash and Cryptography, Hash Rates and Hegemony

The Currency Cold War: Cash and Cryptography, Hash Rates and Hegemony PDF Author: David Birch
Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
ISBN: 191301908X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Money is changing and this may mean a new world order. David Birch sets out the economic and technological imperatives concerning digital money, and discusses its potential impact. Tensions will inevitably arise: between old and new, between public and private, and, most importantly, between East and West. This book contributes to the debate that we must have to shape the International Monetary and Financial System of the near future.

Beyond Bitcoin

Beyond Bitcoin PDF Author: Hanna Halaburda
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137506423
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Digital currencies are a fairly new phenomenon brought about by the spectacular rise of the internet. While Bitcoin is the most famous, there are numerous other digital currencies—from Amazon Coin to Zetacoin. Beyond Bitcoin explores the economic forces underlying the design of their features and their potential. Halaburda and Sarvary argue that digital currencies are best understood by considering the economic incentives driving their creators and users. The authors present a framework that will allow systemic analysis of this dynamic environment and support further discussion of the design of digital currencies' features and the competition in the market.

Beyond Bitcoin

Beyond Bitcoin PDF Author: Simon Dingle
Publisher: Icon Books
ISBN: 1785788310
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
After over a decade of Bitcoin, which has now moved beyond lore and hype into an increasingly robust star in the firmament of global assets, a new and more important question has arisen. What happens beyond Bitcoin? The answer is decentralised finance - 'DeFi'. Tech and finance experts Steven Boykey Sidley and Simon Dingle argue that DeFi - which enables all manner of financial transactions to take place directly, person to person, without the involvement of financial institutions - will redesign the cogs and wheels in the engines of trust, and make the remarkable rise of Bitcoin look quaint by comparison. It will disrupt and displace fine and respectable companies, if not entire industries. Sidley and Dingle explain how DeFi works, introduce the organisations and individuals that comprise the new industry, and identify the likely winners and losers in the coming revolution.

Britain’s Cities, Britain’s Future

Britain’s Cities, Britain’s Future PDF Author: Mike Emmerich
Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
ISBN: 1907994645
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Britain invented the modern industrial city in the nineteenth century. But by the late 20th century most British cities had become basket cases. Today London overshadows the rest of the country, as the UK's only 'world city'. No other large country is anything like as economically and politically centralized. This concentration of power damages Britain's economy and fuels the sense of discontent felt by the millions of people for whom the capital seems like another planet. Yet it is cities that are fuelling economic growth around the world. Mike Emmerich looks at the DNA of cities and how it expresses itself in their institutions, governance, public services, religion and culture. He argues that the UK needs a devolutionary ratchet, allowing major cities the freedom to seek devolution of any area of public spending that is not inherently national in nature (such as defence). Cities should have powers to raise some of their own taxes including business, property and sales based taxes and to increase them. He calls for sustained investment in transport and infrastructure, and also training. An innovation-centric industrial policy would also have an emphasis on the social fabric of cities and - crucially - their institutions.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Systems Engineering

Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Systems Engineering PDF Author: Tareq Ahram
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030204545
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 669

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Book Description
This book addresses emerging issues resulting from the integration of artificial intelligence systems in our daily lives. It focuses on the cognitive, visual, social and analytical aspects of computing and intelligent technologies, highlighting ways to improve the acceptance, effectiveness, and efficiency of said technologies. Topics such as responsibility, integration and training are discussed throughout. The book also reports on the latest advances in systems engineering, with a focus on societal challenges and next-generation systems and applications for meeting them. The book is based on two AHFE 2019 Affiliated Conferences – on Artificial Intelligence and Social Computing, and on Service, Software, and Systems Engineering –, which were jointly held on July 24–28, 2019, in Washington, DC, USA.

Distributed Creativity

Distributed Creativity PDF Author: Marcus O'Dair
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030001903
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
Blockchain technology may have first emerged with bitcoin but its significance extends far beyond the financial sector: it is ushering in a whole new techno-economic paradigm. This book provides the first critical, in-depth examination of blockchain’s transformative impact on the creative industries, including music, media, art and gaming. Drawing on interviews with 10 leading start-ups and a comprehensive review of the literature, the author examines blockchain’s impact on business models, addresses the barriers and risks, and concludes with policy recommendations that will help unlock value in the UK’s creative economy.

Who’s Cashing In?

Who’s Cashing In? PDF Author: Atreyee Sen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1789209153
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Cashless infrastructures are rapidly increasing, as credit cards, cryptocurrencies, online and mobile money, remittances, demonetization, and digitalization process replace coins and currencies around the world. Who’s Cashing In? explores how different modes of cashlessness impact, transform and challenge the everyday lives and livelihoods of local communities. Drawing from a wide range of ethnographic studies, this volume offers a concise look at how social actors and intermediaries respond to this change in the materiality of money throughout multiple regional contexts.

Money and Debt: The Public Role of Banks

Money and Debt: The Public Role of Banks PDF Author: Bart Stellinga
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030702502
Category : Banks and banking, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This Open Access book from the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy explains how money creation and banking works, describes the main problems of the current monetary and financial system and discusses several reform options. This book systematically evaluates proposals for fundamental monetary reform, including ideas to separate money and credit by breaking up banks, introducing a central bank digital currency, and introducing public payment banks. By drawing on these plans, the authors suggest several concrete reforms to the current banking system with the aim to ensure that the monetary system remains stable, contributes to the Dutch economy, fairly distributes benefits, costs and risks, and enjoys public legitimacy. This systematic approach, and the accessible way in which the book is written, allows specialized and non-specialised readers to understand the intricacies of money, banking, monetary reform and financial innovation, far beyond the Dutch context [Resumen de la editorial]