Conclusion

Patrick McConnell

This book is about the emergence of digital money, which differs from traditional money, particularly cash. Digital money is not held in a physical form, such a banknotes or coins, but instead is stored as information in computers somewhere – in fact, in very many places. Digital money is not new. It has been around almost as long as computers, from about the 1960s, really emerging into general use with ATMs in the 1970s. In the intervening half century, digital money has become the predominant means by which value is transferred between people and businesses.

Why has this happened? It is because IT/ICT has become an integral part of almost all aspects of the lives of most people around the world. Not everyone, of course, as there are still large numbers of people, particularly in developing countries, who are digitally excluded. However, strenuous efforts are being made to expand the use of low-cost telecommunications and low-cost smartphones to reach these people, and to allow them to better manage their essential resources, including money.

Some people claim that money itself has changed beyond its mere form, and that digitising money has somehow given money new, somewhat