Coin of the Realm

With money, technological change precedes systemic change. But it all requires trust.

The Banker’s Table by William Harnett, 1877 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)

“In a highly literate, fragmented society, “Time is money,” and money is the store of other people’s time and effort.” — Marshall McLuhan, 1964

How much time do you spend thinking about money?

Unless you work in finance or are in debt, probably not a whole lot. Money is like air: it is around us, and is generally there to meet our needs. We tend to think about money when its absence is felt.

Money, like language, is a construct. It’s something we invented as shorthand for a transfer of goods, services, and ideas.

That shorthand has allowed the world to flourish, from an agriculture-based society to one that embraced the arts, science, and industry. And at each turn, money has been there to support and even drive change.

We’re seeing lots of change happening now, from cryptocurrency to NFTs (more on that below),  opportunities that may seem like a secret language, alternatively whispered among the cognoscenti …