Digitization and the evolution of money as a social technology of account

Abstract

Throughout the history of monetary thought, economists have predominantly emphasised the function of money as a medium of exchange along with the intrinsic properties that enhance its salability and credibility as the most liquid store of value. But the social institution of money co-evolves with technology. It is significant that the advent of digital crypto-currencies was initiated by computer scientists and has taken economists completely by surprise. As a consequence, it also forces our profession to rethink the basic phenomenology of money. In accordance with the views of Wieser and Schumpeter, digitization brings to the fore the immaterial function of money as a standard of value and social technology of account, which increasingly absorbs its function as a medium of exchange. The potential impact of this on economic policy is huge. The variety of different crypto coins has proven the technical feasibility of competing private currencies as proposed by Hayek. In the long term, however, there is reason to doubt the persistence of intense competition. One must fear that major digital platforms will extend their current dominance in multisided virtual market places to include digital payments and money. Central banks are increasingly anxious to preserve public sovereignty over the common unit of account and are considering issuing their own digital fiat money. After the current era of intense creative experimentation, the potentially new spontaneous order of private crypto-currencies is likely to be supplanted by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the design of which will depend on deliberate public choices and policies.

Monedas sociales en la era digital: retos y oportunidades

“…En 2013, ya había casi 4.000 de estas monedas en 23 países diferentes (Amato & Fantacci, 2020). A su vez, es probable que el número haya aumentado a más de 6.000 (Peneder, 2021). Estas monedas, gracias a la digitalización y la criptografía han tenido en el último lustro un gran crecimiento, lo que ha desembocado en una gran proliferación de criptomonedas.…”

“…Las personas, comunidades o localidades que crean monedas sociales suelen tener una ambición u objetivo principal: obtener un intercambio solidario, sostenible y justo (Hirota, 2016). En definitiva, buscan aumentar el bienestar social (Diniz et al, 2018;Peneder, 2021) por encima de otros objetivos como el benefício económico o la rentabilidad puramente económica (Hernández-Bejarano & García Mandaloniz, 2021). En segundo lugar, encontramos la sostenibilidad ambiental.…”

Climate Change Risk Management Strategies: The Case of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Southwest Nigeria

“…Access to credit would positively and significantly increase the SMEs' choice of artificial conditioning of the environment, provision of the drainage system, and provision of fire service unit in the organization as climate change mitigation strategies of their enterprises compared to the use of industrial refrigerators at 5%, 5% and 5% level of significance, respectively. Peneder rightly said that the more financially liquid through access to credit a business organization is, the easier for such an organization to mitigate any business risk [37]. Therefore, the more the SMEs can access credit, the higher the possibility of employing artificial conditioning of the environment, provision of the drainage system, and provision of fire service unit in the organization compared to the use of industrial refrigerators to ameliorate the impact of climate alteration over the years on their enterprises.…”

The cashless man: do preferences matter?

“…On the one hand, digital payments are seen as the best way to remove opportunity costs related to handling physical money and to promote 'tomorrow's global knowledgeintensive economy and electronic commerce' (OECD 2002, p.7). Furthermore, the social institution of money co-evolves with technology (Peneder 2021). On the other hand, social costs of money digitalization may emerge for distributive effects associated with higher costs imposed on the poor and underbanked in the shift to a cashless economy (OECD 2002).…”