Yeah, money. Wealth is a reflection of specialisation in society. As the roles get complex, its often required for a common and standardised means of exchange; that correctly values the services given, and rewards to be received in return. For a long time in the history of humans, the unit of wealth was something valuable, collected farm produce, or special pottery or maybe even rare metals. Even our mythos, often speak of the horses and cows being used as a unit of wealth. All of these related to something that was physical, useful and limited.
But the potential of wealth goes beyond the basics of security and exchange, relating to the abstract concept of power and dominance. Over time this soft control that comes along with wealth has gained more and more importance. And with power comes, the insatiable lust to remain powerful. Governments and kingdoms attempting to accumulate the methods of wealth generation, keeping it, out of reach for the public. And social hierarchies came into being. This method flourished until the structures were challenged by something radical -- money.
Money, made out of coins or paper, is quite a different unit of wealth; considering the fact that the unit has no value in itself. You can't derive any utility of the piece of paper, except when it is authorised. Which in itself meant that wealth was now mostly a fragment of power the bearer was willing to lend you for your services. This freed the means of production and the means of wealth. Which meant, even though I produce something used by millions worldwide, I could end up with no wealth.
Over the years, its economics that has governed the way thing workaround in this globe. And now when we move into the next generation of digital currency, we would also lose the physical sense of money that we previously had. That would mean complete trust in a virtual system, one interconnected and international, that we have no means to verify in reality. Although exciting, it often frightens me out to believe that the wealth of the present world is just numbers stored in computer bits. The real money is probably stacked up somewhere, we have no access to. Only the confidence that it exists, keeps us at peace.
But the potential of wealth goes beyond the basics of security and exchange, relating to the abstract concept of power and dominance. Over time this soft control that comes along with wealth has gained more and more importance. And with power comes, the insatiable lust to remain powerful. Governments and kingdoms attempting to accumulate the methods of wealth generation, keeping it, out of reach for the public. And social hierarchies came into being. This method flourished until the structures were challenged by something radical -- money.
Money, made out of coins or paper, is quite a different unit of wealth; considering the fact that the unit has no value in itself. You can't derive any utility of the piece of paper, except when it is authorised. Which in itself meant that wealth was now mostly a fragment of power the bearer was willing to lend you for your services. This freed the means of production and the means of wealth. Which meant, even though I produce something used by millions worldwide, I could end up with no wealth.
Over the years, its economics that has governed the way thing workaround in this globe. And now when we move into the next generation of digital currency, we would also lose the physical sense of money that we previously had. That would mean complete trust in a virtual system, one interconnected and international, that we have no means to verify in reality. Although exciting, it often frightens me out to believe that the wealth of the present world is just numbers stored in computer bits. The real money is probably stacked up somewhere, we have no access to. Only the confidence that it exists, keeps us at peace.