Tokens as the Future of Money in the Age of Platforms
* Book: Rachel O’Dwyer. Tokens, the Future of Money in the Age of Platforms (Verso, 2023)
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Review
Geert Lovink:
"She describes tokens as in-between artifacts that are simultaneously more and less than money. Tokens turn data into assets, are used to pay wages and track purchases. O’Dwyer asks what new forms of control and discrimination will come with this. “And how might online subcultures, activism, and internet art be spaces for reimagining what money could be. ... Rachel O’Dwyer defines tokens as not just value, “they communicate more than the terms of an exchange. We’ve moved from Marx and Simmel who viewed that money reduced every exchange to a transaction and every object to its price. Tokens emphasize the immaterial aspect of economic life, identity, the social aspect and platforms are in the business of monetizing social interactions. Take the Bored Ape NFTs that, at some point, we not just investment tokens but were primarily used to codify membership of a celebrity club. Already in Roman times tokens were used to grant access to feasts and gatherings. If money flows, tokens filter. “Tokens underscore power dynamics,” she writes. “Tokens bring people together – separate them out. A good deal of work goes into matching intimate relationships with the appropriate token, as in the case of OnlyFans. The tricky part here is the fact that tokens are promises. “Their value hinges on the belief that these promises are kept.”
A token represents a claim and presumes trust, in the case of crypto and blockchain, an almost blind on the side of the believers in the neutrality of self-executing code and programmable contracts. But who’s in control of the scripts?"
(https://networkcultures.org/moneylab/2024/06/08/interview-with-rachel-odwyer/)
Discussion
Tokens as Transactional Surveillance
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/)
More information
- full interview with the author at https://networkcultures.org/moneylab/2024/06/08/interview-with-rachel-odwyer/