Trivial to transact but impossible to forge and duplicate. And to verify they must be able to carry this information about any information so it has to do some platforms and networks and machines to generate effectively those transaction laws and records so to figure out how to make cash digital is a tall order which raises the question of why you would need to build such a thing in answering that question is surveillance to build parallel covert societies to libertarian economics and money to the pursuit of mortality all of these agendas fed into the creation of that coin and cryptocurrency. This isnt a story of just payment platform but a test to engineer a future society. A technological project i call the speculative fiction these currencies were platforms with the aid they are imagining. And then to inspire fear or hope and not just in relation to the future but one of the things i came to enjoy as i was working on the book is the currency world prick on one of the many terms of past and current how something actually functions as money. Then you believe someone else will take it from you in the future. Like it all has to do with anticipation. And then to anticipate a future where the currency is accepted whether state or taxes or goods. Is not necessarily about currency but how they use the idea and that would be wise widespread use. Led paper banknote has a peculiar challenge to prove itself under the extremely demanding rate every time you go to gad movie ticket and you see the signup we no longer accept 50dollar bills. And that is the necessary training how to verify what currency is. Paper banknote to authenticate itself in the moment in the whole of Society General to pass it through the transaction change the transaction chain take a 20dollar bill they are very dear to my heart i am fascinated by them after working on this book wonderful Government Technology with everyday life. So to the authenticating authority with the mint and the small textile Printing Company that specializes in they are amazing by the way. Along to write a book just about the process of secure paperwork it is an amazing artform and underappreciated. But this document and this bill has to function in the us 20 has a working life span over 1000 times over every kind of condition and circumstances before ultimately being withdrawn from circulation. There is a marvelous history to be written about the relationship between the secret service and prop money for movies they need huge volumes of cash and then to carefully supervise how that is produced to look believable and camera while not impassable. And to eventually realize one secret Service Agent said if it is green and has money somebody will accept at. And in that context if its green with a 20 somebody eventually will take it. They have to police themselves to ruin the currencys ability to function. So what this means is the real mess the singularity rests on the multiplicity. We know how currency is supposed to feel and what it looks like, how it authenticates itself to us because we have handled so much of it and that is the paradox now closing in on two centuriesold how to make something uniquely valuable through the sophistication. Hence all the state decorates that resemble birth and death certificates for the stamps , the seals and the color shifting inks. And those are the products of a tool. That was identified specifically for this because it can mechanically and quickly produce patterns exceedingly hard for the human hand reproduce. And stock certificates. And all of these transact with those signatures. They are archaic proof of precise and reproduction. All major currencies around the world also carry another Authentication Technology called the orion constellation this is a visual arrangement not for human but Image Processing software to communicate to certain categories of highend desktop Publishing Systems adobe photoshop, High Precision color it locks it out of the capacity to think it makes it possible to make an analog object by consensus platforms will refuse to touch that is strange and magical. So what that orion constellation raises for us is the difference that Digital Technology introduces to cash because a copy of the banknote is a copy there will be flaws and imperfections whether in the paper stock or missing details the way it was printed there wasted a copy of a banknote is not authentic it is a subculture of those who have expertise to recognize the subtle differences of bank notes. Unless it is compressed or altered a digital copy can be the original and easily verified as much it is a straightforward challenge of authenticity for reproduction which one is real . Or both how do you know if it is authentic or came first duplication is the issue of digital money itself this was issued by the institution and it has not been altered or tampered we can spot when somebody uses ball point pen to make a tendollar to 20dollar bill having a yosemite hasnt flipped a bit . There was one obvious solution that brings us to the first why digital cash. Like using paper checks or debit cards. The earliest project to predict the future of digital cash is the case this is the computers of tomorrow in the atlantic ma may 1964 in which the landmark document and among many other things that computers will dramatically transform the Digital Systems of money but that they could quietly police who has access to what and which electronic notes were affected this fantastic article from behavioral studies very much Johnny Appleseed of america and based on the congressional testimony to Warn Congress of imminent danger of the balance of power created by digital surveillance. Of that transfer system part of the team at georgetown brought together on behalf of the state department with the technological future of the soviet union the challenge was to come up with the best unobtrusive comprehensive Surveillance System they designed electronic funds transfer system like this systems of credit and debit cards. The reason being it is a timestamp to let you engage in every aspect and gives you data about the transaction and it can react to your purchases at something the state has decided you cannot have two red line to deliver forms of invisible coercion. With that marvelous in a horrific sense. Because the project affiliated to disenfranchisement and for those who have assets and to make them unavailable. That was said in an interview and said now that everyone uses that Electronic System to deny people access to credit to make she even envisioned as a society around systems and this scene from the show that in the background sees oranges for the first time in years that she doesnt have any money that lets her by oranges its only for other things. She could only freely engage in transactions for herself. For one specific purpose so that she can be tracked and monitored. And those transactions this is where we see people but then these transaction systems and that particular project was to make withdrawing money from the bank account as easy to do digitally as it was physically with the equivalent protection for your privacy. Weather that is digital or physical cash you can have in hand and theoretically there is no way for your particular identity circulate them when they are redeposited they go back into an account and deposit for recirculation. This was an inspiration to open up a vast design space and indeed a small Cottage Industry and to circumvent his patents and added into the industry. And in this case, he had a very different why why it was worthwhile to focus on electronic cash. He is a great figure for historians because his life like one of his safety shots goes through a whole new un subculture and theme navigated through so many subcultures and communities. For those other lives of digital cash and how they all came together and with a Loose Network of cartography advocates and to be interested in privacy but also with the possibility that was native to the internet but operate outside territorial governance entirely. But to have this the signature along with serious clever jokes about the talking heads for go this was his plan and his vision of cryptoanarchy the description of the master plan that he argue largely inevitable with the spread of strong encryption of anonymous digital cash for new off the books global blackmarket markets and information networks. And as the list implies as the collapse to the nationstates and government. Thats the second wife. And to transact in privacy but uphold the users out of a relationship with julian assange, and also the creator of bit coin dark monies silk road. Or for the retired intel engineer posting manifestoes but his why raised another how. The currency is not being managed then how much currency should be produced . How is that amount verified . And how do you know that token you are transacting is real . To have prototype toy currencies to have that computational challenge and as he was not alone but there were many other people who collaborated. So he envisioned that you have verifiable work with a proof of work is cost is the volume of money to replace the system of human Central Banks also like a cute email address. The technological roots of the project this is the design for what works and then to govern the production to contribute to be measured and verified by other people. The technological roots laid the idea how to deal with email spam another challenge to create a place and prevent the flood of worthless paper. And the Cultural Roots of this project has less to do with reinventing postage than reinventing gold. The third why is a complex set of political commitments to a currency backed by Precious Metals. And then i realized that this is already james bond gold finger pointing to fort knox. The obsession with gold will carry throughout the next part of my talk. This is the third why based on a complex set of commitments of currency backed by Precious Metals. And with that liquidity of online commerce and transaction transactions. Scarcity, the way it functions as an asset class and the deflationary character. And i have to say what hg wells calls magnificent and stupid honesty goldman and all of that however unreal to put it outside of the control of government regulation for banking. This version of the digital cash project due on the work of the real pioneers, a subculture of digital gold currencies. Before paypal egold and other companies doing massive volume but then to put them to quarterly in idaho and others. This particular artifact is from the Liberty Dollar not a bank. That is the own circulate of all notes of ownership receipts for volume of precious metal stored on pallets. And his soon as they could issue paper receipts to come up with their own ledger and transaction system to pay and be paid in the precious metal accounting system. This version of the digital but that networks ease of use is the scarcity of precious metal. And they required a tremendous amount of trust on behalf of the users mammogram of the bar of the chain of custody documents and warehouse that you likely never saw and when someone drops the dime and the secret service got wind , everyones assets were tagged and thrown into the van for the trial. The whole network could be distributed and all the assets walked out the door with us marshals. It is the best source for the currency scheme of all the stuff that is left over from the various documents they released publicly which provokes another how how do you build a system in the ledger of ownership with the scarce material that is distributed. Sitting with a sympathetics to the goals but not the means of the digital gold currencies of particular importance isnt just the scarcity of gold but the way it could be known the cultures of knowledge and the ways it can be physically weighed or assayed or accounted for if you go back to the archival material its like going back into the archives of the archivists. Meticulously maintained sheets that tell you every single time it was tested sitting on every context. And with knowledge and written in terms of block chain knowledge. The creators of dgc proposed ideas so something that would allow them so that quality of money so that was for Precious Metals. Started going to libertarian events in New Hampshire as i was working on this book because its one of the only places with casual daytoday transactions and in Precious Metals. Im sure many of you can guess why you can buy things and with that changing volume of Precious Metals at the time. And that metallic content changed on the basis of the hobby just to get rolls and rolls of quarters and hang out in your house at night working for to identify the pre 1964 quarters and then to cycle through the banks own inventory. And then to buy socks or what have you at the libertarian event and then from your smart phone with a bit coin. Or you are transacting silver. A very specific question. How was that the people that make one thing like the other . Because both could theoretically be known. Asking why he got interested in silver he looked at me baffled the wait is the weight its a specific type of knowing the first and last why of making digital cash is just closely connected to the previous three is the same issue was explaining the system of digital cash. The journal of trans human thought. And someone on the margins and the member of an almost forgotten network philosophers and bay area weirdos at the end of the century. And then and then to sites inspiration and get the key ideas going. So to be focused on the creation of limitless abundance more energy, information, time, spac. And of the austrian freemarket economics that a path to abundance through technological innovation that the phrase free markets barely does them justice and then to be nominated and hayek and that influential figure the issue from the virtual bank and filled with jokes about the future they were sure they would be a part of. The first thing they thought had to be free with the ultra free market with the breakthrough that they hoped for was money itself. New forms of future oriented currency distributed by decentralized banks are the vehicles out of the earths gravity well to be rich beyond measure for which they could profit today and many of those experiments are notable to build currencies on how wildly successful you are going to be with idea coupons the only remaining idea coupon that i intend to claim to mature only if the prediction came to pass so you could buy into the prediction almost of your betting on kick starter except for the likelihood if some number of operation or putting humans on the surface of mars by a certain date. And one other bet it takes the melancholy sting to lay the groundwork and then plan to have themselves cryonic frozen. The highlighted name was an entrepreneur and a techno optimist notable for other stents for the Space Shuttle budget into the congressional record to depress the value of the private industry spaceflight market and the online information marketplace a fascinating book to be written at some point here is the interesting character indeed this was widely discussed with the Information Exchange with the inversion of the entire internet trying to build by himself from scratch a singularly bizarre project also was dying of pantry at on pancreatic cancer the issue that he discussed with a friend of his how to create the money to hold its value into the future are secured from taxation available with a password. Indeed how the past word itself has controls in the brain has to be reconstructed with so much accuracy the password could be recalled from it a reverse prize to bring its own back. This is from the log of people being frozen. Which is still maintained which in of itself if anyone wants to do this of like nonfiction and studies of everyone who is currently on i. C. E. The snapshot of a particular quarter of the 20th century. So the need to freeze meant the currencies they were envisioning to simultaneously have technological change while also remaining themselves safe and secure as real estate or Treasury Bonds the kind of money that could keep your wealth from you in which your love existed but thats impossible in the intention that plays out in much contemporary digital cash. And fascinated by this picture always wonder what the woman on the left is thinking as she gazes out of the courts. This is the room that it is stored in which they are frozen. In what is this room of room full of broken time machines and investment vehicles was speculative innovation to produce the technology to repair the machines and this is the fourth why of digital cash is ended up being produced after the millennium as a paradox that was also a fantasy of the downturn improve security and speaking practically nobody is speculating on cryptocurrency of people in the same breath promise something that is more solid than any other aspect could be which as a historian of mathematics it is as real as math but simultaneously while the volatile through the stars of prosperity and its rare to find an asset like that. The deep freeze tasks include that i would like to close here with the correspondent and a recipient of the second bit coin transaction with technical and critical feedback with the first draft of the new system and decide from themselves and probably construed the most important person in the early days. Money is ultimately about that. One of the questions we should think about, and the long run we are all dead. The future is where we go to be archaic and asked her nest stick fools for the deceased. The future is where all money ultimately ends. And so one of the questions that i think this project gives to us, that i hope we can talk about a little bit in the q and asf im reflecting on this, not necessarily just practical currency but currency that also holds promises about the future. And ways of thinking about the future. And ways of thinking of what the future holds for us. If there are ways that we can talk about what kinds of futures we would like to live in. And how money can build toward those promises. How forms of curr