Author: Finn Brunton

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Date: 2019

Comments:Just as the press and commentators are competing with opinions about Facebook’s recently announced Libra “crypto”-currency, Finn Brunton, professor at New York University, publishes this history of cryptocurrencies and the motivations behind their advocates. Although the technical jargon of crypto-currencies can sometimes be impenetrable, the common thread uniting previous attempts has been that fiat cash is on the way out and that those with cryptocurrencies will be the new elite. Brunton’s thesis is that money is a cosmogram, a model of the universe and a plan for how to organise life and society accordingly. So the shift to crypto-currency is not just the collapse of money, but the collapse of society as we know it. This goes for the technocrats of the 1930s who proposed a stable currency tied to units of energy; the cypherpunks (including WikiLeaks Julian Assange) who saw digital money as part of the struggle against the state; and the extropians who dreamt of a healthier smarter humanity based on a barter system. Libra by Facebook was announced too late to be included in the book but it is striking that its utopian talk of financial inclusion and stability echoes earlier propositions. While Facebook is certainly a powerful backer, both financially and politically, it does not mean that it will be successful, especially as legislators and others have made clear their doubts about the proposed system. While some innovative approaches to finance are clearly needed, the author doubts that crypto-currencies represent the future of money. Historically, movements that believed in the end of money have not ended well.