DIGITAL MONEY: WHO DECIDES THE FUTURE?

Money is evolving. This transformation is not merely technical but profoundly political, social, and ethical. Will digital money remain under centralized powers, or will we advocate for privacy and freedom? With blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we can program economic incentives with ethical principles, promoting a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society. However, to achieve this, it is urgent to understand the nature of money, which is advisable at this historical turning point towards a digital system that will surprise us.

1. Money: A Database

Money began long before the invention of coins as a repository of mental information about transactions stored in the collective memory of tribes and small human communities. This shared memory allowed exchanges with high transparency and social responsibility. However, this transparency was lost as societies grew, giving way to complex, centralized, and opaque financial systems. Today, the money we use, whether physical or digital, has lost the ability to record the social and community impacts of transactions. Whether with banknotes or bank transfers, the current money database cannot assess the ethical dimension of transactions. The good news is that blockchain technology and AI enable us to recover the collective memory of primordial money, expanding it securely and transparently to a global scale (hyperledger).

2. Paths to the Future of Money

A. Decentralized Money: Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies, based on blockchain and other decentralized ledger technologies, advocate for individual autonomy and allow communities to create their own currencies tailored to their needs. They also may promote ethical practices and combat inequalities.

B. Centralized Money: CBDC

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are highly efficient (and therefore unavoidable), but they compromise privacy and freedom, allowing surveillance and abusive control of citizens, as is happening in China with the Digital Yuan.

3. Speculation (More of the Same)

Although it is possible to recreate ethical money, the vast majority of people are still unaware of it. Meanwhile, digital natives who had understood the technology earlier used cryptocurrencies mainly for speculation. Accustomed to the alienating logic of the one-dimensional economic incentive system they grew up with, they perceived blockchain technology as more of the same—namely, an opportunity for immediate profit—channeling the reliability of its transactions into trivialities aimed at quick profitability, such as kittens, puppies, TV show characters, memes, or viral events. These “meme coins” projects, whose sole purpose is to rapidly inflate the value of cryptocurrencies by attracting momentary curiosity and the expectation of quick profit through ephemeral fads, humorous frivolities, and other popular internet stuff, reinforce a superficial culture and divert cryptocurrencies from their transformative potential. Unfortunately, this happens at a critical moment for humanity, when we need an ethical economic incentive system to face existential challenges like the climate crisis and the risk of war becoming nuclear and unfolding with overly intelligent weapons.

4. Ethical Money

The first truly digital currency was the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, programmed with the sole (and essential) purpose of serving as a store of value, given that current money revealed its incapacity in this matter (financial crisis of 2008-2009). In the meantime, after the initial speculation, cryptocurrencies and monetary systems programmed with interesting purposes from an ethical point of view are finally beginning to emerge, notably adjusting money to society and human value. In the agricultural sector, for example, digital tokens and cryptocurrencies reward ecological practices and ensure the origin and traceability of products, promoting sustainability. On the other hand, local digital currencies are taking the first steps to revitalize local commerce, certify regional products, and strengthen community economies. In general, “smart contracts” are beginning to allocate resources directly to positive ends, such as education or renewable energy, promoting a more just, sustainable, and inclusive economy. Unfortunately, these initiatives have not received any prominence in the media agenda. Cryptocurrencies are also needed to incentivize responsibility in promoting news content that favors society, rewarding journalists and platforms for creating and disseminating matters of public interest, such as reports on innovative social initiatives. A blockchain system can transparently and securely record public feedback, weighting and assigning tokens to informative and relevant content. After all, don’t fact-check platforms deserve to receive cryptocurrencies whenever they debunk false or sensationalist information aimed at combating misinformation? Indeed, ethical money will also transform the media into a sector more aligned with society’s values.

5. Decisive Times

We are at a crucial phase for humanity: will digital money be a tool of oppressive control or liberating transformation? Will we demand transparency in CBDCs and support initiatives to create decentralized cryptocurrencies? With blockchain and AI, civil society will have the means to create its own monetary systems that promote privacy, equality, and sustainability. Of course, the government can and should do it, too, as the replacement of current amoral money with digital money is inevitable. However, since this new money is discretionarily programmable, it can be programmed morally or immorally. Hopefully, the necessary verification of the goodness of digital currencies can be democratic and freely conducted in the market so that we can create an ethical economic incentive system centered on people and not on corporate interests or the designs of the political nomenclature, which so often instrumentalizes money to maintain privileges and reinforce power structures. Only with transparency and active participation of civil society will it be possible to ensure that this new monetary system is genuinely inclusive, fair, and aligned with human values.

The future of money is in our hands. But who will decide it?

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