{"product_id":"tokens-by-rachel-odwyer-9781839768378","title":"Tokens","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLonglisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWherever you look, money is being replaced by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data—the list goes on. But what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTokens\u003c\/em\u003e opens up this new and expanding world. Exploring the history of extra-monetary economies, Rachel O’Dwyer shows that private and grassroots tokens have always haunted the real economy. But as the large tech platforms issue new money-like instruments, tokens are suddenly everywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmazon’s Turk workers are getting paid in gift cards. Online streamers trade in wishlists. Foreign remittances are sent via phone credit. Bitcoin, gift cards, NFTs, customer data, and game tokens are the new money in an evolving economy. It is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. Tokens may offer a flexible, even subversive route to compensation. But for the platforms themselves, they can be a means of amassing frightening new powers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn essential read for anyone concerned with digital money, inequality, and the future of the economy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47363252879596,"sku":"9781839768378","price":24.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/582813482843.jpg?v=1772919314","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/tokens-by-rachel-odwyer-9781839768378","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}