ABOUT THIS WEBSITE

We are envisioning a new world where today’s aging, less useful and even dangerous financial systems
are replaced by or mixed with more disruptive innovations and exchanges. Imagine yourself deprived of all of today’s financial resources. Maybe you’re a refugee or stateless. Yet you still have your handset and laptop and Internet and a broadband cellphone connection….

kashklash: the game and the booklet

by Irene Cassarino

Get a digital copy of the kashklash booklet. If you need the high resolution version, just ask, we’ll be happy to send it to you.


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In reserve

by David Birch

[Dave Birch] As is clear from the agenda for the Digital Money Forum from its earliest days, I’ve been interested in the subject of alternative currencies for a very long time. In fact, since the days of the Mondex project, when we (Consult Hyperion) were approached by people who wanted to store their own currencies on…


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Exchanging the futures at LIFT09

by Irene Cassarino

Hello to kasklash fellows and thank you for animating and feeding the discussion about the future of exchanges with such amazing and passionate interventions.
lift It is my pleasure to announce you that kashklash is featured at the LIFT09 conference with a workshop and hopefully a dedicated talk. Enjoy the announcement and please consider to join it: you -…


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The Irish answer

by Michael Linton

The introduction - “imagine yourself deprived of all of today’s financial resources” - poses a hypothetical future that’s worth serious attention. Sometime in the early ’70s, a couple of bank strikes in different countries were resolved in quite different ways.

One, in France, was quite unremarkable.  The banks were closed, you couldn’t get money, you couldn’t deposit…


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Barter after the financial crisis

by Nicolas Nova

The bartering meme is spreading with interesting developments. This is clearly a favorite topic of mine, as attested by this introductory blogpost (or the presentation of this swiss platform). For several months, there is renewed interest in this topic as specialists aim at using bartering to fix issues related to the financial crisis.


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Super powers

by David Birch

[Dave Birch] A superpower is bogged down in a distant guerrilla war. The superpower must resupply its army, victorious for a generation, thousands of miles away from home and it’s become a very costly endeavour indeed. Support for the war at home is tentative, and is dividing both the people and the political leadership. The…


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Good as gold

by David Birch

[Dave Birch] Suppose that one of the longer-term results of the current economic crisis is that people begin to lose faith in government money (ie, national fiat currency) and start to search for alternatives. Then what (and who) will be best placed to provide the alternative? What I mean by this is that if a…


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Copying cash

by David Birch

Summary


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Money mashed-up

by David Birch

[Dave Birch] One of the functions of banks that has been changed forever by the Internet is what economists call the information function. People used to rely on banks to provide certain kinds of information into the market (eg, credit ratings) but a combination of technology-enabled business change and vanishing delivery costs has meant that…


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scientists and the klash

by Nik Baerten

John Brockman’s Edge.org organized a round of reflection on the financial crisis with several scientists. Mike Brown, Stuart Kauffman, Zoe-Vonna Palmrose and Lee Smolin ask: Can science help to solve the economic crisis? Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Douglas Rushkoff, Larry Sanger, Mike Brown, George Dyson, Emanuel Derman, Michael Shermer, Paul Romer, Tor Nørretranders, Eric Weinstein and Brian Knutson respond.

Several interesting…

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seeing, believing, acting

by Nik Baerten

At the outbreak of any major crisis, there is always the question of ‘why didn’t we see this coming?’. The financial crisis? Oh, many saw it coming alright … yet few managed to make others believe a meltdown was not only possible, but most likely, and none managed to mobilize believers-decision-makers to act upon their belief…


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Technology is progressive, finance is cyclical

by David Birch

[Dave Birch] You might be familiar with the demise of Northern Rock (or Northern Crock as it is now known the length and breadth of the UK), the collapse that marked the start of the current financial crisis so far as the British were concerned. But you may be less familiar with the story of…


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designed money futures

by Nik Baerten

It might be considered old news in these twittery times, yet somehow it rises to foreground in today’s economic climate with a sense of lasting freshness and value. Students at the RCA’s Design Interactions department led by Anthony Dunne, carried out a fascinating design research project in collaboration with Intel’s People & Practices Research Group entitled ’the future of money’. They…


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Big Mama, Greifswald, Rebel kids, Brixels: The People of kashklash

by Bruce Sterling

Let’s imagine four possible futures, based on two important variables.

The first is the stability in exchange systems. It’s a given that these are already unstable. So our range of variability is from “confusing mess” — today’s condition — to some radical condition of “massive change“.

The second variable is telecommunication technology. That can plausibly range from “old…


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How to fund the economy of the future

by Joerg Jelden

The current crisis is really exceptional. At Trendbuero I am studying it for a while now, always looking for chances that may arise from it. For me, KashKlash is a great approach to discuss solutions in a world where credit is ultra-rare. Great opportunity to discuss questions like How will our economic system look like without…


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