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Will Money Be “Real” in an Information Society?

Published at Mind Matters
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At the Seattle-area COSM conference coming up October 23–25, a panel not to miss is “Can Crypto Reverse the Tech Decline (and Enable an Internet Renaissance)?” It features currency expert Ed Moy, publisher Steve Forbes, venture capitalist Tim Draper, and mathematician Bill Dembski, offering insights about cryptocurrencies—private password-protected currencies like the original Bitcoin and Facebook’s new proposed Libra.

Many of us know cryptocurrencies only from headline news (Donald Trump does not “Like” Libra) or fleeting, odd news ($millions trapped and only a dead man knows the code). Yet thoughtful people argue that such currencies will help shape an information society.

Mind Matters News spoke with Bill Dembski, who has been studying cryptos for years. As an information theorist, he sees money as a type of information: “For people to claim ownership of information is nothing new. Our society even dedicates an entire industry to preserving and tracking ownership claims to information: intellectual property law.” But information does not require paper or tokens in order to exist. In an information society, systems like cryptocurrency are bound to arise and need only avoid such pitfalls as too much centralization and lack of security, he suggests.


See also: COSM: George Gilder hosts top tech guys, to ask, where is all this AI stuff going? Are machines replacing or helping us and how will we know the difference?

Note: The October 23-25 conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in the convergence of AI, crypto, blockchain, 5G, and the next generation internet for whom the $950 Early Adopter Rate (before July 23) would be a good investment in their future.

Quick reads on cryptos, by Jonathan Bartlett:

How Bitcoin works: The social value of trust

and

Is Bitcoin safe? The human side of security is critical

Featured image: Futurist city/metamorworks, Adobe Stock

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