Cloud money: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets, reviewed

We look at this topical book by Brett Scott, you can see more about Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets here.

Cloud money: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets, reviewed

Brett Scott’s ideas and opinions have been quoted and popped up in some interesting places, and by interesting we mean with far-right libertarians and deep conspiracy theorists. Scott is not necessarily a fellow traveller with those types of ideologies, but, through his advocacy of us questioning, and not completely diving into a cashless world, his concepts have appealed to these groups.

In some ways you have to question if Scott’s goal, a push back against the move to a cashless society is a along the lines of shutting the stable door long long after the horse is out into the fields and far far away. There are some sections where he does articulate well the risks that can follow from an overly digitised and centrally controlled system of money.

He explains these well, but for many of us, if we consider the absence of metallic lumps jingling in our pockets, or even notes in our wallets, it has been a long time since many of us had cash on us. Otherwise it is increasingly common to have one coin to fit into the supermarket trolly, and one note just incase you are truly stuck somewhere that won’t take a cashless payment.

For Scott this may validate the concerns he is articulating, however at times we felt that in some parts of the book, the fright value was high, whereas the details about the risks were more thinly covered and discussed. This is certainly a thought provoking book, and he may well find the ideas described here also picked up by others with their own agendas to advance, but, at times it felt like his opinion may have been made up before he did the research or wrote the chapters. We may be wrong, but this could definitely be a good author to have on our podcast to further expand on his opinions and particular point of view!?

More about the book

Many of us rarely use cash these days. And the reach of corporations into our lives via cards and apps has never been greater. But what we’re told is natural and inevitable is actually the work of powerful interests: the great battle of our time is for ownership of the digital footprints that make up our lives.

Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? Is the end of cash the end of true privacy? And is a cashless future closer than we think?

Cloudmoney tells a revelatory story about the fusion of big finance and tech, which requires physical cash to be replaced by digital money or ‘cloudmoney’. Diving beneath the surface of the global financial system, Brett Scott uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure waging a covert war on cash, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress.

From marketing strategies against cash, to the weaponization of Covid-19 to advance fintech platforms, and the cryptocurrency rebels and fringe groups pushing back, Cloudmoney takes us to the frontlines of a war for our wallets that is also about our freedom.

More about Brett Scott here

Brett Scott is a campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former broker. He is the author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money, and has appeared in a wide range of TV shows, radio broadcasts and documentaries, including BBC World News and Sky News. He has written extensively on financial reform, digital finance, alternative currency, blockchain technology and the cashless society for publications like the Guardian, New Scientist, Huffington Post, Wired Magazine and CNN.com, and also publishes the Altered States of Monetary Consciousness newsletter. His Twitter is @suitpossum

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