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So much of modern life happens online. It's not entirely true that your social life, your career and your reputation consist of records in Meta Platforms, Google and Microsoft databases, but it's not entirely false either.
Some of these things have to do with computers. It is much more practical for money to be a computer record than bags of gold or even paper bills. However, there is something deeper than that. What could it mean to own a house? One possibility is the natural state: owning a house means 1) you are in the house and 2) if someone else tries to occupy it, you are bigger than them, so you can kick them out. But if they are bigger than you, they now own the house.
Another possibility is what you might think of as a village. Owning a house means you live there and all your neighbors know you live there and if someone else tries to occupy it, then you and your neighbors together are bigger than they are. Home ownership is socially mediated by a network of highly trusted peers.
A third possibility is what you might think of as governance. Owning a house means that the government knows that you own the house and, if someone else tries to occupy it, then the government will kick them out. Home ownership is socially mediated by a government. The database is a way for the government to keep a record. You don't have to trust any particular person, you have to trust the rule of law.
Money is also something like that. Bags of gold are its simplest expression, but they are impractical. A system in which your trusted banker holds the bags for you and makes you a document with which you can make withdrawals at bank branches managed by your banker's cousin is quite good, although it relies on trust between you and the banker, as well as the banker and his cousin. The impersonal banking system is one in which the bank tellers are strangers and you require trust in the system to use one of them, plus the assurance that the banks are governed by government regulation or reputation or market forces and will therefore behave correctly.




