IDENTITY IS THE NEW MONEY
Published in 2014 ‘Identity Is The New Money’ argues that identity is changing profoundly and that money is changing equally profoundly.
Because of technological change the two trends are converging so that all that we need for transacting will be our identities captured in the unique record of our online social contacts. Social networks and mobile phones are the key technologies. They will enable the building of an identity infrastructure that can enhance both privacy and security – there is no trade-off.
The long-term consequences of these changes are impossible to predict, partly because how they take shape will depend on how companies (probably not banks) take advantage of business opportunities to deliver transaction services. But one prediction made by David Birch in ‘Identity Is The New Money’ is that cash will soon be redundant – and a good thing too. In its place we will see a proliferation of new digital currencies.
“If you’re anything like me, by the time you’ve finished reading the book you’ll be wondering not just why we’re still exchanging copper, zinc and nickel coins with each other, but whether the days when a country can hold a monopoly over currency are coming to an end.” From the Foreword by Ed Conway, Economics Editor, Sky News
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Birch doesn’t claim to have all the answers. What he has done is produce a bold, forward thinking book that grapples with weighty issues in a concise and accessible way.
David Birch is the author of a fresh, original and fascinatingly wide-ranging short book about developments in the field, Identity Is the New Money. His is the best book on general issues around new forms of money, and new possibilities generated by blockchain technology. You finish his book convinced that something is happening in which the register, and credit more generally, and money, and banking, and identity, are all starting to blur together.
What is harder to convey is that this short book is densely packed with argument; written, praise be, in English of a straightforward and intelligible sort; has every technical concept explained, and has a breezy and enjoyable good humour that typifies the author himself. Small wonder that he is one of our most revered telco and payment systems consultants.
Purchased as part of the core reading for my degree. I love his clarity of prose, and the phenomenal amount of knowledge behind his writing.
I really enjoyed reading this book. So much so that I read it over a weekend in a few snatched hours. The book has thought provoking and challenging ideas, but the writing style is accessible. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the ideas, but I think I am on roughly the same path as the author in terms of thinking cash money may have a shorter future than some may think. In the book he manages to convey a clear and compelling message without descending into impenetrable tech and maths. If you are interesting in the future of cash, identity, block-chains or distributed ledger there is a lot to think about and engage with in the book . It was £7.99 well spent.
Clever stuff – lots of neat ideas in here – clearer than cryptocurrency hype, dlt nonsense, and has a lot of useful background on ideas that led to systems like Sovrin, plus new personal data worlds like citizenme etc.
An excellent and well considered intro into this increasingly relevant topic with some great anecdotes. It’s also a concise book which, with my limited attention span to any topic yet alone monetary technology, I liked. I look forward to reading more from this author and hope he covers and hope he expands to include the more broad aspects of reputational management and incorporates more historical comparisons. This is an insightful contribution into a fascinating area of how money and identify will reshape the modern world. Highly recommended.
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About ‘Identity Is The New Money’
Preface from Identity Is The New Money
While the immediate genesis of this book lay in a talk I gave to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in London in 2011, the ideas it crystallizes go back much further.
In 1997, along with my colleagues at Consult Hyperion, I had been involved in some projects in the secure electronic transactions field that had caused me to reflect on payments and identity management. I had come to the conclusion that there were some major changes underway and that we needed to explore the implications.
The arrival of the world wide web and the mobile phone meant that the highly secure and efficient transactions systems that we had been working on for the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange, high street banks and even a proposed manned space mission (!) would soon be available to the mass market.
“Dave Birch’s thoughts on digital identity were seminal to the UK’s Identity Assurance Scheme. Anyone entering the field of digital identity should take this book with them.” David Rennie, Identity Assurance Programme, Government Digital Service, Cabinet Office
As my colleague Neil McEvoy pointed out at the time, the secure computers, costing tens of thousands of pounds, and secure data networks, costing millions of pounds, used to execute money market trades in the City of London could be replaced by free Internet Protocol (IP) connections and the €1 tamper-resistant microprocessors now seen on every credit and debit card, swapped between mobile phones and inside every “tap and go” mass transit ticket.
I began to wonder what this significant technological advance in monetary transactions would mean. With the strong and unswerving support of my colleagues, I set about creating the Digital Money Forum and, subsequently, the Digital Identity Forum, in order to bring together a wide range of experts to explore the technological, business and social changes each year in London.
It became clear that the two topics were converging and in time all of the events, blogs and podcasts were gradually merged into the Tomorrow’s Transactions thought-leadership blog, podcast, annual forum and “unconference” series held in the UK and North America.
The discussions, observations and reflections that stem from seventeen years of these forums, in the context of Consult Hyperion’s work for clients on secure electronic transactions around the world, that form the core of this book and its central claim: the future of money is linked to the future of identity.
As time has gone by, I have become ever more convinced that we need to revise our understanding of what identity is and reformulate technical, business and, above all, social strategies for dealing with identity in the “new economy”.
This book is an attempt to explain why. It also suggests one or two significant implications for policy makers and others. My argument is, in short, that the new economy and new society that we are building on top of it demand a new way of thinking about identity, and a new way of thinking about money – and that the two converge.
“Dave Birch gives one of the best accounts available today of how we’ll navigate the challenges of the emerging payments landscape, and how traditional data points on identity don’t really make sense in a digital world. An outstanding piece of work which may well define our journey moving forward.” Brett King, Founder and CEO of Moven.com, and author of BANK 3.0
BUY THE BOOK HERE
Click below to go to our publishing house where you can purchase ‘Identity Is The New Money’