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Tokens (The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform)
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Product Details
Author:
Rachel O'Dwyer
Format:
Hardcover
Pages:
320
Publisher:
Verso Books (October 3, 2023)
Language:
English
ISBN-13:
9781839768347
ISBN-10:
1839768347
Weight:
16.8oz
Dimensions:
6.31" x 9.49" x 0.99"
File:
RandomHouse-PRH_Book_Company_PRH_PRT_Onix_full_active_D20260405T163651_155746739-20260405.xml
Folder:
RandomHouse
List Price:
$29.95
Case Pack:
12
As low as:
$23.06
Publisher Identifier:
P-RH
Discount Code:
A
QuickShip:
Yes
Audience:
General/trade
Country of Origin:
United Kingdom
Pub Discount:
65
Imprint:
Verso
Overview
**Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year**
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Platform capitalism is coming for the money in your pocket
Wherever you look, money is being re-placed by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data—the list goes on. But what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities?
Tokens opens up this new and expanding world. Exploring the history of extra-monetary economies, Rachel O’Dwyer shows that private and grassroots tokens have always haunted the real economy. But as the large tech platforms issue new money-like instruments, tokens are suddenly everywhere. Amazon’s Turk workers are getting paid in gift cards. Online streamers trade in wishlists. Foreign remittances are sent via phone credit. Bitcoin, gift cards, NFTs, customer data, and game tokens are the new money in an evolving economy. It is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. Tokens may offer a flexible even subversive route to compensation. But for the platforms themselves they can be a means of amassing frightening new powers.
An essential read for anyone concerned with digital money, inequality, and the future of the economy.
---
Platform capitalism is coming for the money in your pocket
Wherever you look, money is being re-placed by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data—the list goes on. But what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities?
Tokens opens up this new and expanding world. Exploring the history of extra-monetary economies, Rachel O’Dwyer shows that private and grassroots tokens have always haunted the real economy. But as the large tech platforms issue new money-like instruments, tokens are suddenly everywhere. Amazon’s Turk workers are getting paid in gift cards. Online streamers trade in wishlists. Foreign remittances are sent via phone credit. Bitcoin, gift cards, NFTs, customer data, and game tokens are the new money in an evolving economy. It is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. Tokens may offer a flexible even subversive route to compensation. But for the platforms themselves they can be a means of amassing frightening new powers.
An essential read for anyone concerned with digital money, inequality, and the future of the economy.
