Money 2.0.

Summary The back cover states: "All money is based on trust. Whether one pays in shells, gold coins, banknotes, credit cards or bitcoins, the seller will only give up his property if he has confidence in the value that the community recognizes in the currency received in exchange. There is no finance without trust: credit is based on the lender's belief in the debtor's ability to repay. Trust is the keystone of the payments system, and no matter how sophisticated modern monetary instruments are, it is based on a hierarchical system of trusted third parties that guarantees the durability of the monetary order. Then came the Internet, that great dynamiter, which shakes up the intermediaries that are supposed to produce trust in the most diverse domains. It is no coincidence that the digital explosion in the world of money and finance is gaining momentum since the legitimacy of institutions - banks, central banks, states - has been weakened by the violence of the financial crisis. But digital networks also allow for new ways of building trust. However, intermediaries have not disappeared and algorithms cannot solve everything. The new forms of digital trust do not abolish the need for institutions, but they do transform their role.