Bill Maurer is Dean of the School of Social Sciences; Professor of Anthropology, Law and Criminology, Law and Society; and the Director of the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of
What’s in Your Wallet?
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Published:October 2015
Empty your wallet or purse. What do you see? You probably see all manner of alternative forms of money, from loyalty cards to coupons, and records of prior relationships, like receipts. Some of these seem trivial, but may represent a kind of private, nonstate currency—a challenge to the state’s issuance of fiat money that many money innovators are seizing on as a means to imagine a new future for money. These nonstate currencies often mark social status, or create new statuses—even among the dead!
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