In the 1700s, Isaac Newton made a radical shift by telling people that a piece of paper was as good as a piece of gold (what we now know as a bill). In the 1970s, with the move away from the gold standard, the same type of revolution started happening, again with a move from paper to bits.

As money becomes more virtual (credit card, direct deposits, RFID), its form and shape is changing to the point where currency itself is no longer the same shape as what it once was.

During this session we will go through the historical changes to date. We will dive more particularly into the micro-currencies that emerged and failed during the first internet boom and the current crop that is emerging and will compare and contrast them.

Some examples of new emergent currencies will include the “World of Warcraft” gold coins, the Tencent QQ (China), the Cyworld acorn (South Korea), and others.

We will also look at micro-loan providers like prosper.com, zopa, kiva, and others and show how they are impacting money flows around the world.