Tokens

Wherever you look, money is being replaced by tokens. These are digital assets, issued by platforms, that can be traded and offer new types of relationships, forms of ownership, as well as governance. Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Facebook's proposed Libra, and other forms of value such as airtime, special access, and data, are the new currency within an evolving economy.

Platforms are now paying in tokens rather than cash. Amazon's Mechanical Turk offers gift cards, and M-Pesa trades in phone calls. But is this a liberation or a dangerous warning of the future?

What does it mean when platforms become the new banks? Tokens opens up this new world and warns that we are unwittingly welcoming new forms of surveillance and discipline. O’Dwyer argues that this challenges the balance of power between the online empires and the state. In effect, the platforms determine the value and methods of exchange or allow the value of the asset to be speculated over. They are siphoning vast wealth and power with few regulations.

In response, O’Dwyer argues that money's truly transformative power comes when we consider it as a 'commons', produced and held collectively.