Cloudmoney

May 1, 2022
A finance journalist treks through the murky world of digital transactions, cryptocurrencies, and surveillance through data. Scott worked in a variety of roles in the finance sector before turning to an activist brand of journalism, and his 2013 book, The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance, did much to demystify the world of banking. Here, the author applies his expertise to show how digital currency has become the norm, to the point that the use of cash seems eccentric, even reactionary. The move away from cash began before the internet, but it received a massive push by the banking sector and big tech companies, with each gaining access to millions of new customers. E-money advocates claim that the transition was led by consumers' demands for convenience and flexibility, although Scott argues that it was mainly driven by corporations seeking to exert more control and generate more profits. Marketers claimed that a cashless society was the inevitable future, and anyone who opposed it would be left behind. Of course, electronic transactions generate fees, and online shopping often leads consumers to purchase unnecessary items. Perhaps the most worrying element is the way in which digitization allows for an unprecedented level of tracking and surveillance. For a while, writes Scott, it appeared that blockchain technologies would provide alternatives to corporate domination, but it's increasingly apparent that many behemoths have absorbed the challengers. Are the giants as secure as they seem? Likely not, according to the author. In fact, the system of e-money is remarkably fragile, vulnerable to cybercrime and economic crises. Though the author doesn't provide solutions to many of the problems involved in institutional-level digital finance, he offers a personal suggestion: "We must vigorously assert our right to use cash, and to see that as a political act....Deep down I am fighting for something personal. The right to be dirty and physical." Told with authority and clarity, this story will be disturbing to anyone who values their privacy and the freedom to choose.

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June 6, 2022
Journalist Scott (The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance) sounds the alarm on a world without cash in this trenchant if uneven account. The cashless movement is gaining momentum, he writes, thanks in part to the pandemic, when paper money was seen as a disease vector (in 2020 the use of notes plummeted by almost 50% in the United Kingdom alone). Scott considers the virtues of hard currency—including its tactile nature and the fact it doesn’t track data—and portends a cash-free future wherein government and the finance-tech industry monitor transactions and extract fees. Scott’s depiction of the invisible web that facilitates digital transactions is sobering: “Cash is a bug, jamming the emerging fusion between finance and tech, and given that those are the biggest players in our economic network, they are jointly pulling away from it.” Unfortunately, in explaining financial concepts, he often relies upon clumsy analogies that muddy things more than clarify them (global monetary systems are a “nervous system,” central banks are a “Giant in the Mountain,” and bad posture is a metaphor for “the passive element” of digital payments). And while he makes a solid case for concern, he comes up short on solutions. This one’s likely to leave readers wanting.