THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

In Open Finance, the financial institutions that will be the winners
are those that have positioned themselves to transfer value on the
Net, instead of just national currencies. For example, the capacity to
handle non-traditional currencies smoothly, as a complement in
payment systems to the national currencies, will be a major plus.
Payment systems that try to deal exclusively with national currencies
will be at a structural disadvantage. For instance, how about sending
an e-mail to your daughter stranded in a foreign country, with an
attachment of some dollars and some frequent-flyer miles for her to
buy an airline ticket home? How about paying for something on the
Net with a mixture of dollars and corporate scrip or complementary
currency? Cendant is already using mixed payments of dollars and
its own 'net Market Cash', like Tesco with its Clubcard credits.
Similarly, the first dual-currency smart cards for payments in a mix
of dollars and complementary currency were being tested in
Minneapolis in 1997 (as will be shown in Chapter 7). All this may
sound strange to the habitual ways of thinking by today's established
market leaders. But as Eric Hoffer put it: 'In times of change, those
who are ready to learn will inherit the world, while those who
believe they know will be marvellously prepared to deal with a
world that has ceased to exist.'
Wisdom in the information Age?
The coming of the Information Age does not just entail positive
consequences. The one certainty it heralds is change. Resisting the
change has proved to make the shift even more traumatic in the long
run. The cost structure in favour of the Net is so overwhelming that
the wave will be irresistible. It will also go global much faster than
was the case of the Industrial Revolution.
It is important to remember that information-as-resource is only a
raw material, the equivalent of a sack of coal during the early
Industrial Age. It becomes truly useful only when it is transformed