Money is Changing

Our societal structure of communication, which moved from the public sounds of village life to a fragmented breakdown with the invention of print, transformed into a physical manifestation of sound. The printing press changed sound into a physical symbol broken into its smallest components, in repeatable forms at minimal cost, and exchanged it from hand-to-hand. The deciphering individual possessed the knowledge to decode symbols printed on paper, bound within volumes replicated identically in every iteration.

The individual chose their preferred location to receive the message, without the message moving in public, and engaged their eyes and minds in solitude. Without immediate feedback from the creator, the reader decoded the message, constructed words, phrases, and eventually comprehended ideas and values.

This transition propelled the message from the creator to the readers, eliminating the arena for discussion, refutation, or inquiry. The scarcity and high cost of technology established the perceived value of the information contained.

Consequently, as a global human population, we evolved from ear-led communication within a small village, where sound resonated for all to hear and understand, to a fragmented array of groups. Communication branched into those intended for the masses and those possessing specialized knowledge.

The village, where understanding and communication occurred publicly through sound, dealt in unique items and engaged in a many-to-many exchange with immediate creator feedback. Economically speaking, this was akin to bargaining over the price of a handmade article. Though many were crafted, each item remained distinct and negotiated individually.

In the realm of print, physical objects were produced on assembly lines, deconstructed into their tiniest components, and reassembled in uniform and efficient fashion. The objective was mass production at the lowest possible cost. Consequently, this mode of understanding permeated society, shaping our lives and relationships.

Thus, individuals within society became disconnected from their roles as functional members and were relegated to fragmented positions. The fisherman didn’t do ‘work’. There wasn’t a concept of being on-the-clock or off. The dependence on each role changed to an occupation of work, became marked with value, prioritized, and information was selectively bestowed on a need-to-know basis, fostering separation among individuals. The human felt alone and alienated in the individual struggle to understand how their lives were changing. The human, the citizen, became estranged from the collective and sought solace in the seclusion of their homes, immersing themselves in solitary reading, understanding, and personal experiences.

Great technological advancements ensued, spanning physics, communication, commerce, and more.

Then, at present but now changing again, the world switched with the discovery of electricity. With the invention of the lightbulb, abandoning the incremental acquisition of information for an abrupt transition between off and on. We flip the switch in the mechanical and metaphorical.

Insight—an epiphany—and voila, we have it.

Electricity and the lightbulb suddenly enveloped our lives, liberating us from the sun and moon, enabling us to see the entire field in the darkest hours of night.

Now, as humans, we have logically swung back from fragmented understanding, and detached from rigid rules, and embraced a realm of symbols. We navigate through layers of comprehension instantly, and through emotional connections by seeing a squiggle with no phonetic sound. Like a trademark conveys meaning, or how an icon on the desktop represents a whole application.

Among the final frontiers, held closely by a centralized group wielding the power of unique knowledge, lies the exchange of value—commerce. Money.

Money is changing.

It cannot be stopped. It is transforming from the one-to-many model into many-to-many, just as mainstream media has evolved from information from one source pushed into a population in a hypodermic needle fashion, into a decentralized web of instant information and replies and debate. The answer to misinformation or disinformation is not to control the message; it is more information from decentralized sources. With open dialogue.

Banking is transforming before our eyes (a little communications humour there). New technology allows the separation of banking functions and innovation through new players. The central banking system has been preparing to try to hold control but it will fail. Cycles in economics go around a wheel just as all other systems. They know this. So they will try to use whatever technology they can to have the individual give up power without knowing the consequences – an uninformed consent.

New tech is bringing decentralized finance. New kinds of private money. The central bank acknowledges it and has given speech giving it a green light, and preparing commercial banks to bring in less profit as private FinTech companies develop payment innovation. The central banks are now negotiating with nations to let this private money develop, but when it comes to ‘real world’ taxes and settlement, that only central bank money is to be used.

The horse trading is going on behind closed doors.

When those doors swing open everything will change quickly.

You may want to research some of the new decentralized finance companies. I’ve researched and chosen mine – a profit-sharing model that can use tokenization to share profit with token holders, as one of those innovative new products.

New forms of money as a new form of communication.

From the nation-state model of society to what Marshall McLuhan called the “global village”.

An even playing field.

Money is changing.