Form Follows Finance

Liquid Modernity and Tethered Money

Mind map of the tethered money in relation to a user

Samid Gideon suggests tethered money, in Tethered Money: Managing Digital Currency Transactions (2015), as a way to manage the rooted issue of money and to address it in the context of the 21st century. Unlike conventional money, tethered money only has two out of the three notions of money: store value and unit of accounting. It is not universal as its usage is limited to a certain sphere. Some prevalent forms of tethered money today are air miles, gift cards and coupons. These are limited within their usage sphere. Air miles cannot be translated into money for food. Gift cards and coupons can only be used at a particular store. So, imagine if the universality of money is removed, fraud, waste and abuse of money is confined, it might even deter it because the use of it is so limited.

Tethering potential in different industries, organisations and community

Potential Exploration for User’s Tethering

By understanding the principles of tethering, it seems very much possible to use it as a guiding system for how architecture can be transformed to advance with digital technology; by addressing the human concern of the intangible world through tangible spaces. It can also address two major groups, citizens and governments which more often than not disagree with each other. Potential it addresses certain forces and craft a truce between the force and object. Ultimately, one is never more in power over the other, expressing modernity through autonomy.