The future of money is Facebook?

Venessa Miemis is a futurist researching what is happening at the intersection of technology, and how this will impact society… so her session at Amplify on ‘the future of money’ was always going to be one which drew the big crowds!

So what is the future of money according to Venessa? Well, much of her discussion centred on Facebook, and the future role Facebook and other social media sites might take in a new sort of social currency.

‘Community preceeds commerce’ was one of the Venessa’s key points. By building a community first, creating a space where people have the ability to exchange information and resources, the commerce will follow.

In an era where so many communities are online, sentiments are evolving into a social currency. As people turn to other people for opinions and advice online rather than to brands, businesses are moving to quantify online relationships and traits such as trust, credibility and integrity.

Could the bank of the future store our online behaviour and identities like banks of today store our money? Venessa suggested there may come a day where this information could provide benefits which money simply can’t buy.

Facebook ‘credits’, Facebook’s own currency, was discussed in some detail and Vensessa shared her belief that these credits will soon spread to the real world. Will we be able to use our online credits to purchase offline goods? Taking this one step further, Venesssa predicted an era where online currency or credits could be used as an incentive towards action. As a business, will we encourage people towards positive action by offering Facebook credits?

Around half of Venessa’s time-slot was filled with a question and answer session, so there’s little doubt that her provocative topic got the audience thinking!

The full video of Venessa’s session will be available on her Amplify speaker page soon.

Blogpost by Carla Ellerby from the Amplify team @carlaroo