sutton038

This article is published in print format in the amazing Burning Issue Magazine  created by legendary moneyburner Jonathan Harris. To pick up a copy of the full 160-page magazine go here To burn digital money requires an act of arson. You must undertake a mission to an industrial park to burn down the fortified datacentre of a large bank like Barclays. But even if you achieved that, they would have backups, and to fully burn the digital money supply you’d have to destroy all bank and central bank datacentres. Our everyday digital pounds, dollars and euros do not reside in your computer or on your phone. They reside as records imprinted on huge bank-controlled computer arrays, and your laptop or smartphone is just there to interact with those central hubs.  We can burn cash because we have personal autonomy over it. We can hold it in one hand whilst striking a lighter flame in the other. Digital money, by contrast, is not directly held by us. It is held by those who control the...

Note: This was originally published as a response to the Aeon Conversations piece ' What is Money ' Money is not a store of value. It is a claim upon value. This might sound like pedantic semantics, but it is crucially important, especially if you’re trying to alter how it works. Imagine a Coca Cola bottle with Coke in it. That bottle is a store of value. If I open it and drink the Coke, it will kickstart energy processes in my body and help me to carry on surviving. Now imagine a piece of paper next to the bottle that says ‘whoever holds this is entitled to claim this bottle of Coke’. That’s a claim upon value. If a group of people come to believe in the validity of that claim, the note can be passed around as a means to metaphorically ‘transfer’ Coke value, or - more accurately - to transfer access to Coke value. That’s then a form of money. The fundamental difference between the note and the Coke can be tested by a simple experiment. Burning them. Imagine I drop the Coke in...