Tokens as Transactional Surveillance

Discussions

Rachel O'Dwyer:

"Since the history of accounting there have been forms of transactional surveillance. Since the birth of money there have been forms of special tokens with strings attached – scrip for workers, alms for the poor, pin money for married women, grey market tokens for things like drugs and sex work, and special tokens for marginalized groups – for refugees, for slaves, for servants. The digitization of tokens has driven a large shift from anonymous and public cash payments in recent years towards tracked and surveyed online tokens that are used to profile and stratify users. In particular, the recent push to ‘go cashless’ has affected the poor and the elderly.

The shift to digital payments has also accelerated the issuance of programmed tokens – money with strings attached. In the past, tokens like food stamps were used to funnel relief into special tokens, but users often found ways of repurposing tokens for their own ends. (In Ireland, for example, we had a relief token called a butter voucher, but many shops accepted them for cigarettes and alcohol). Today, most of these special tokens are hard coded and you might find you have no choice but to obey their terms and conditions. So what kinds of values are being written into these new tokens? Who gets to code them? The state or the platform?"

(https://networkcultures.org/moneylab/2024/06/08/interview-with-rachel-odwyer/)