Or “Job Creators” or “Philanthropy Donors” or “Charity Funders”

To make a long story short, as most things over time, ways to transfer value between people or accounts evolved with the latest technologies that could reduce the process time and increase the ease at which people could do it. So many different ways were invented for a money receiver to see a bigger number in their bank account faster.

Now let’s travel to the past’s future where in the 1970s three interesting things are happening in the world of finance.

The beginning of ~ neoliberal ~ economic policy largely in the US and the UK in the form of banking deregulation Credit cards are being pushed onto people and an increasing rate to make it easier for people to buy stuff they wouldn’t buy otherwise A network of banks in California start the first automated clearing house (ACH) which processes large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches using computers, which are like telegraphs but better

All of the ingredients were now in place for the financialization of many aspects of our lives because buying stuff is easy and fun now! In order to facilitate the continued profits for the financial elite, computer databases were used to automate financial activity, especially as a way to keep track of the debts people owed now that credit was so easy to get. Surely this was a good idea because all the wealth that the rich would make off of the new “pro-market” policies would trickle down onto the commoners who could then pay back their debts…

The point I’m trying to make here is that digital currency (the representation of monetary value using digital technologies) has actually existed for quite some time in centralized databases held by financial elites who used them as vehicles for enhancing their own wealth with the help of the State while increasing economic inequality. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that people disillusioned with the status quo were open to alternatives presented to them. Although most people might associate digital currency with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the only thing we can call these representations of money held at banks and payment processing companies is digital currency. Cryptocurrencies are simply a form of digital currency that uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology.