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Perspectives Essay Series
Identity Is the New Money
This book argues that identity and money are both changing 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 take advantage of business opportunities to deliver transaction services. But one prediction made here is that cash will soon be redundant - and a good thing too. In its place we will see a proliferation of new digital currencies.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 25, 2017
Read Something Else
Truth is often expressed better as fiction. The reason is that factual argument gets in the way of creative thinking. This isn't fatal unless one is trying to think creatively about the future, about the non-factual possibilities that can't be proven but which may be critically important. This book is too argumentative to be creative. The historical connection between identity and commercial transactions is clearly both intriguing and important; and it has been fatally compromised by the existence of the Internet. Birch does a good job of establishing this point, but doesn't really say anything near as interesting about what will happen as a result. For insight about the latter I suggest David Eggers' The Circle.
Truth is often expressed better as fiction. The reason is that factual argument gets in the way of creative thinking. This isn't fatal unless one is trying to think creatively about the future, about the non-factual possibilities that can't be proven but which may be critically important. This book is too argumentative to be creative. The historical connection between identity and commercial transactions is clearly both intriguing and important; and it has been fatally compromised by the existence of the Internet. Birch does a good job of establishing this point, but doesn't really say anything near as interesting about what will happen as a result. For insight about the latter I suggest David Eggers' The Circle.
June 10, 2017
"There are really three kinds of identity associated with people: the individual’s own personal or psychological identity, their social identity and their legal identity. (...) So what will link changing identities with changing money as these trends converge? In a word, trust. In a world based on trust, it will be reputation rather than regulation that will animate trust in economic exchange.The ‘social graph’, the network of our social identities, will be the nexus of commerce, administration and interaction. (...) We have radio waves and transistors and a nuclear-powered robot trundling around on Mars but we don’t have a working identity infrastructure. (...) the cost of using social capital will reduce for transactional purposes. In the end it will become lower than the cost of alternatives, the principal alternative at low transaction values being cash. So there will be no need for cash any more. In other words, identity is the new money."
Interesting essay, chock-full of wonderful stories and anedoctes. Lots of powerful and relevant insights, as in "privacy is important. Privacy permits individuals to express unpopular ideas to people they trust without having to worry about how society will judge them. It is vital to democracy and it contributes to the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and the promotion of the truth.23 Privacy, however, is not enough. Private property creates social order and a peaceful society requires a clear allocation of goods and rules for their public use.24 In other words, as is well known, privacy needs security. So we need security as well." Or: "There are virtually no daily occasions when we have to prove who we are: in general, we are being asked to prove that we are entitled to do something, which is an entirely different issue and one that can be resolved without compromising on privacy. To take the most mundane of examples, my ‘identity card’ ought to be able to prove to a pub that I am over 18 without telling the pub who I am, which is none of their business (and they can still bar you without knowing your name!)." And, for instance: "The reason I say this is, without making a political point, that it is impossible to balance uncontrolled mass migration, the nature of modern working life and the British welfare state. There is no need to explore this point further here, except to say that a great many people would be in favour of welfare claimants having to present their entitlement to welfare, patients having to present their entitlement to health services, voters having to present their entitlement to exercise the franchise and so on. We can use the modern privacy-enhancing infrastructure to decouple these entitlements from the underlying identities and resolve the paradox of more security and privacy."
What doesn't convince me at all is the insistence on the need to terminate cash ("money laundering, corruption, tax evasion and so forth", the usual reasoning to extinguish from the world the claim to freedom that cash ultimately and fundamentally is), even if some arguments are advanced to assure us that the alternative isn't so dire as I'm sure it will be: "The reason why there is a resurgence of interest in the future of money is, in an analogous manner, because it is no longer seen as being a state monopoly. Just as we will be using non-bank payment systems to send value around the network, that value will not be the fiat currencies of today."
Anyway, it's a vision of a world where the importance of banks is greatly reduced, a day that won't come soon enough. And even advocating that cash is a curse, it's at least a universe away from Roggoff's vomit on the same subject.
Interesting essay, chock-full of wonderful stories and anedoctes. Lots of powerful and relevant insights, as in "privacy is important. Privacy permits individuals to express unpopular ideas to people they trust without having to worry about how society will judge them. It is vital to democracy and it contributes to the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and the promotion of the truth.23 Privacy, however, is not enough. Private property creates social order and a peaceful society requires a clear allocation of goods and rules for their public use.24 In other words, as is well known, privacy needs security. So we need security as well." Or: "There are virtually no daily occasions when we have to prove who we are: in general, we are being asked to prove that we are entitled to do something, which is an entirely different issue and one that can be resolved without compromising on privacy. To take the most mundane of examples, my ‘identity card’ ought to be able to prove to a pub that I am over 18 without telling the pub who I am, which is none of their business (and they can still bar you without knowing your name!)." And, for instance: "The reason I say this is, without making a political point, that it is impossible to balance uncontrolled mass migration, the nature of modern working life and the British welfare state. There is no need to explore this point further here, except to say that a great many people would be in favour of welfare claimants having to present their entitlement to welfare, patients having to present their entitlement to health services, voters having to present their entitlement to exercise the franchise and so on. We can use the modern privacy-enhancing infrastructure to decouple these entitlements from the underlying identities and resolve the paradox of more security and privacy."
What doesn't convince me at all is the insistence on the need to terminate cash ("money laundering, corruption, tax evasion and so forth", the usual reasoning to extinguish from the world the claim to freedom that cash ultimately and fundamentally is), even if some arguments are advanced to assure us that the alternative isn't so dire as I'm sure it will be: "The reason why there is a resurgence of interest in the future of money is, in an analogous manner, because it is no longer seen as being a state monopoly. Just as we will be using non-bank payment systems to send value around the network, that value will not be the fiat currencies of today."
Anyway, it's a vision of a world where the importance of banks is greatly reduced, a day that won't come soon enough. And even advocating that cash is a curse, it's at least a universe away from Roggoff's vomit on the same subject.
November 4, 2017
Algo desordenado y caótico, aunque algunas reflexiones me parecieron interesantes:
BREVE RESUMEN:
La paradoja de la sala de chat (sobre la privacidad): si mi hijo entra en una sala de chat, quiero conocer la identidad real de todos los presentes, pero no quiero dar la mía.
Hacia una nueva infraestructura de identidad. Requisitos:
- Credenciales en el mundo digital: “check” entregado a una persona que prueba algo sobre ella. Son emitidas por entidades específicas habilitadas para ello y suelen tener fecha de caducidad que requiere que se renueven. Ejemplos:
o Certificados electrónicos (DNI)
o Información biométrica (huellas, etc.)
- Identidad social: no relacionada solamente con redes sociales, sino “en general”. Somos nuestras relaciones.
- Identidad negativa: responder SI o NO sobre un determinado atributo de una persona. Ejemplos:
o ¿Es mayor de edad?
o ¿Tiene carnet de conducir en regla?
- Pseudónimos: son clave en internet, y muy útiles
o 1 persona, N identidades digitales
o No evaluaríamos igual (ej. Tripadvisor, Booking), si tuviésemos que dar nuestra verdadera identidad. Está demostrado que las evaluaciones bajo alias funcionan mejor que las anónimas y que las que exigen identidad real.
o La identidad real, en el mundo virtual, es solamente un caso específico de pseudónimo.
o Los pseudónimos perfectamente se podrían usar con credenciales reales
- Atributos: describen a la identidad. Pueden ser certificados por una o varias entidades concretas.
- Seguridad: a falta de un proveedor universal de identidad que gestione todas mis identidades (que debería llegar en algún momento, ya sea provisto por gobiernos o por bancos), usamos diferentes opciones con niveles de seguridad dispar. Desde FB Connect para comentar en un blog hasta DNIe o sistemas con doble check para operaciones con bancos. El primero se “revienta” mucho más fácil que el segundo o el tercero, pues requiere conocer solamente la password. El segundo necesita disponer del certificado y de la clave. El tercero, la clave y el dispositivo tercero de validación (el móvil, p.e.).
Hacia un nuevo concepto de dinero
- Trueque cheques tallies (siglo XI) monedas billetes
- El dinero en metálico es un “pirateo” del concepto de dinero, es decir, es un caso particular de un concepto más global, que consiste en ser capaces de intercambiar bienes sin ser expertos en tasar lo que queremos comprar o vender (según el caso). Un ejemplo que muestra esto es que hay muchísimo dinero en circulación y que está “perdido”, convirtiéndose en un bien en sí mismo.
- El dinero en metálico es incómodo y está muriendo: tarjetas, teléfonos móviles, pagos electrónicos.
- Banca y pagos divergen. Lo segundo está sometido a una disrupción agresiva. Lo primero está muy regulado.
- Bitcoin muestra que crear nuevas “monedas digitales (cryptocurrencies)” será sencillo. Su utilización dependerá de la aceptación del mercado.
BREVE RESUMEN:
La paradoja de la sala de chat (sobre la privacidad): si mi hijo entra en una sala de chat, quiero conocer la identidad real de todos los presentes, pero no quiero dar la mía.
Hacia una nueva infraestructura de identidad. Requisitos:
- Credenciales en el mundo digital: “check” entregado a una persona que prueba algo sobre ella. Son emitidas por entidades específicas habilitadas para ello y suelen tener fecha de caducidad que requiere que se renueven. Ejemplos:
o Certificados electrónicos (DNI)
o Información biométrica (huellas, etc.)
- Identidad social: no relacionada solamente con redes sociales, sino “en general”. Somos nuestras relaciones.
- Identidad negativa: responder SI o NO sobre un determinado atributo de una persona. Ejemplos:
o ¿Es mayor de edad?
o ¿Tiene carnet de conducir en regla?
- Pseudónimos: son clave en internet, y muy útiles
o 1 persona, N identidades digitales
o No evaluaríamos igual (ej. Tripadvisor, Booking), si tuviésemos que dar nuestra verdadera identidad. Está demostrado que las evaluaciones bajo alias funcionan mejor que las anónimas y que las que exigen identidad real.
o La identidad real, en el mundo virtual, es solamente un caso específico de pseudónimo.
o Los pseudónimos perfectamente se podrían usar con credenciales reales
- Atributos: describen a la identidad. Pueden ser certificados por una o varias entidades concretas.
- Seguridad: a falta de un proveedor universal de identidad que gestione todas mis identidades (que debería llegar en algún momento, ya sea provisto por gobiernos o por bancos), usamos diferentes opciones con niveles de seguridad dispar. Desde FB Connect para comentar en un blog hasta DNIe o sistemas con doble check para operaciones con bancos. El primero se “revienta” mucho más fácil que el segundo o el tercero, pues requiere conocer solamente la password. El segundo necesita disponer del certificado y de la clave. El tercero, la clave y el dispositivo tercero de validación (el móvil, p.e.).
Hacia un nuevo concepto de dinero
- Trueque cheques tallies (siglo XI) monedas billetes
- El dinero en metálico es un “pirateo” del concepto de dinero, es decir, es un caso particular de un concepto más global, que consiste en ser capaces de intercambiar bienes sin ser expertos en tasar lo que queremos comprar o vender (según el caso). Un ejemplo que muestra esto es que hay muchísimo dinero en circulación y que está “perdido”, convirtiéndose en un bien en sí mismo.
- El dinero en metálico es incómodo y está muriendo: tarjetas, teléfonos móviles, pagos electrónicos.
- Banca y pagos divergen. Lo segundo está sometido a una disrupción agresiva. Lo primero está muy regulado.
- Bitcoin muestra que crear nuevas “monedas digitales (cryptocurrencies)” será sencillo. Su utilización dependerá de la aceptación del mercado.
October 9, 2020
Teknoloji ile birlikte ödeme yöntemleri ve belge güvenliği değişiyor. Çok da uzak olmayan birr gelecekte nakit para kalmayacak. Daha doğrusu bugün alıştığımız sistem oldukça değişecek; mesela paralar ülkelerin olmayacak. Yani ülkeler veya merkez bankaları para ihraç etmeyecekler. Sistemin veya piyasanın kendi parası olacak. Değişim aracı ve değer ifadesi olarak günümüzdeki paraların yerini başka mekanizmalar alacak. Paranın olmadığı devirlerde barter ile başlamıştık, bartera geri dönüyoruz. Kimliklerimizi kullanacağız; teminat olarak, ödeme aracı olarak veya tasarruf aracı olarak. Şahısların, şirketlerin kendi paraları, jetonları, puanları olacak. Hayatımızda para olarak veya para yerine geçecek değer ölçüsü olarak binlerce çeşidi bulunacak. Kullanacağımız uygulamalarla biz binlerce hatta onbinlerce çeşit para görmeyeceğiz; bize bir anlamı olan değer, ücret, para veya fiyat olarak göreceğiz.
October 24, 2021
It’s amazing the ability Dave has to understand the evolution and practical use of identity and money in one single context, I read this book in 2021, and it’s amazing to see what he wrote and how many things he proposed did happen and are present in every transaction we do today with our phones!.
Simply amazing!
Simply amazing!
June 15, 2018
This was as long as I felt it should have been and really broadened my perspective on the conversation, even if I don’t necessarily agree with the policy proposals or all aspects of the mental model.
July 19, 2018
A novel and smart take on a subject that is not as dry as it often gets purported to be.
September 12, 2019
Insightful yet obvious
It is quite an insightful outlook on one prediction of the future of money in this digital time and age.
It is quite an insightful outlook on one prediction of the future of money in this digital time and age.
November 21, 2021
Excellent book. Well written with concepts that are still to be seen.
May 23, 2022
One of the early books on the nexus between identity and money - enjoyed this second reading. The author writes clearly using analogies that bring his prose to life.
November 21, 2022
Pas facile a lire mais vision intéressante
September 13, 2015
This is more of a thesis on the future of identity than a book per se, but it's an interesting, well structured and challenging read, especially if you are in any aspect of the identity business. Well illustrated with examples throughout, free of jargon, though perhaps a little more UK specific than I might have wished.
October 16, 2016
The start of the book is very intriguing. Moreover, David Birch is able to explain through very good historical examples difficult concepts. However, in the second half of the book he falls very short of explaining how online identity will become the "new money". And my guess is that this won't happen anytime soon.
February 19, 2016
Interesting read. Great points made - it will be exciting to see how Birch's thoughts play out over the next few decades (or faster?).
January 24, 2017
Kimlik : Yeni Para isimli Türkçe çevirisi okundu
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews