Cloudmoney

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The reach of corporations into our lives via cards and apps has never been greater; many of us rarely use cash these days. But what we're told is a natural and inevitable move is the work of powerful interests. And the great battle of our time is the battle for ownership of the digital footprints that make up our lives.

In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of big finance and tech requires 'cloudmoney' - digital money underpinned by the banking sector - to replace physical cash. He dives beneath the surface of the global financial system to uncover a long-established lobbying infrastructure: an alliance of partners waging a covert war on cash. He explains the technical, political, and cultural differences between our different forms of money, and shows how the cash system has been under attack for decades, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress.

Cloudmoney takes us to the frontlines of a war for our wallets that is also about our freedom. From marketing strategies against cash, to the weaponization of Covid-19 to push fintech platforms, and the rise of the cryptocurrency rebels and fringe groups pushing back. It asks the most pressing questions:

Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? Is the end of cash the end of true privacy? And is our cloudmoney future closer than we think it is?

© Brett Scott 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • If people could see clearly how their money is created, they would rebel – especially now that it is digitised. Brett Scott’s highly readable and topical Cloudmoney is, in this sense, a wonderfully revolutionary text

    Yanis Varoufakis

  • Cloudmoney is a brilliant, fascinating and utterly accessible book – a pioneering and political guide to the fast-evolving web of global finance… If you want to understand what money is – and what it is in danger of becoming – start right here

    Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics

  • A fascinating and readable guide to the future, and how we can reclaim that future from the clutches of Big Finance and Big Tech

    Grace Blakeley

  • The rush to a cashless society isn’t about convenience. It is about power. Brett Scott cuts through the hype with this brilliant critique of digital money and the rise of fintech empires, while offering a compelling alternative vision. Don’t miss this book

    Jason Hickel, author of Less Is More

  • Your head has been deliberately filled with falsehoods and confusion about money. This brilliant book helps you understand how that happened, who profits from our collective financial ignorance, and how we might best fight back. Filled with dazzling insight and admirable clarity, this is a book you’ll soon be recommending far and wide

    Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

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