life transactions

Life transactions, today we talk about monetary transactions. Money has been successful as a currency. A currency allows for an exchange of different commodities, services or even money itself. Acts as a store of wealth and all because society has created/found a way to trust the record keeping associated with money. Such a task that it accounts for twenty odd percent of the market capitalisation of major stock market indexes but even more impressively is bound into every transaction in our recorded economy every second of every day, of every year, year in year out. Such an impressive situation you would find it hard to believe it being so pre its implementation.

Capitalism forces are now ready to expand its ambitions for its currency. Money transactions summaries a much wider set of events. The cost of wrapping those in a monetary transaction are too high. In fact, I read that half the GDP of the world is accounted for by transaction costs. (I have no evidence to support this). There is a transaction framework that has more or less put those costs to zero. The framework, the Internet.

The cost of authoring or publishing information is near zero. For those transaction formed online then we have a new currency able to capture all events that are meaningful in the creation of a monetary transaction. This currency exist today and as time passes more and more of all monetary transaction processes are being authored to the Web. It is just a matter of time before society migrates to this new currency framework.

Society will be comfortable in it the way, we are with money and banking services today. However, life transaction will improve the incentive systems of capitalism. In monetary transaction the legal frame work governing the transaction is the mechanism to create trust. However, this does not lead to a transaction doing the right thing or allocationg resources best, most efficiently or even fairly. Life transaction authored online will have incentives to rewards transactors that deliver the outcomes sought be each party. Life transaction will be complete when what needs to be done is done. This does not need to be the case with a monetary transaction, this disconnect being money Achilles heel.

Capitalism will always need a currency, that name and purpose will change, as society evolves. Timing these evolutions is never easy but from what I see happening in the world, a new currency is in the making.