6 Things That Could Replace Paper Money

“Although predictions about the end of cash are as old as credit cards, a number of developments are ganging up on paper and metal money like never before,” author David Wolman writes in his recently released book “The End of Money” before going on to list the factors involved: “mistrust of national currencies, novel payment tools, anxiety about government debt, the triumph of mobile phones, the rise of virtual and alternative currencies, environmental concerns, and a wave of evidence showing that physical money is most harmful to the billions of people who have so little of it.”

So what could replace money as we know it? Of course, cashless electronic payments are the sexiest, most forward-looking option. But there clearly are other, more old-school items of value that could essentially fill the same role as today’s currencies, having value in the eyes of millions or billions of people worldwide regardless of where they live.

To work, they would have to be like commodities: The goods must not only have value but meet some kind of general standard. So, for instance, getting hold of George Clooney’s personal e-mail address clearly has tremendous value in the eyes of some people. But the potential value is limited not only by the fact the demand would largely be confined to women in North America, Europe and a handful of other countries familiar with the actor, by the fact that there is only one George Clooney, and by the fact that as soon as he realized his e-mail address had been used as a de-facto currency, he’d change it. On the other hand, a loaf of bread has a common utility value worldwide: Even if you don’t need it, you can exchange it with someone else for an item that you do need, the hallmark of a classic barter arrangement.

Here are some other suggestions for real global currencies that consumers could adopt without worrying about complex inter-governmental fiscal arrangements. They are arranged in a hierarchy, from low denominations – the nickel, say – to the equivalent of a very high denomination bill indeed.