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Greco takes us through money's history telling how the medium of exchange that is money has evolved from simply being something in general demand that could easily be held until one was ready to buy what's really needed, to ever more abstract forms of precious metal and slips of paper – money that has little relation to anything physical. The opening paragraphs of the book set the scene for what is to come:

It may seem a bold assertion to suggest that the end of money might occur any time soon. Money is such a basic feature of our everyday lives that a world without it is almost inconceivable. It is a thing as necessary as air, water, and food – because, in a developed economy, it is by the process of exchange that we acquire virtually everything we need to live, and money is the instrument that enables that exchange. Exchange will certainly continue, but in quite a different way, and money as we know it will become obsolete. How this is occurring, and what will take its place, are the subjects of this book.

Very few people realize that the nature of money has changed profoundly over the past three centuries, or that it has become a political instrument used to centralize power, concentrate wealth, and subvert popular government. While there has been some talk about the "cashless society," what is being talked about does not constitute an end to money, but rather the enhancement of "political money" by the application of ever more effective instruments of social, economic, and political control. When I speak about the end of money I am referring to the growing recognition that money has become nothing more than an information system, and to the emergent mechanism for managing exchange information outside of the conventional banking system and without the use of political monies.

In his book, Greco discusses the rise of central banking and its connection to political and social control, the destructive influence of compound interest and usury, as well as the cause and the nature of inflation. He introduces a new concept: the separation of money and state. Just like religion should not be imposed by the state, so money should not be state controlled and its use imposed on us through the use of "legal tender" status.

The separation of money and state implies greater freedom of people to choose which currencies they will use and to create their own. Buyers and sellers, who are the affected parties in a transaction, should be able to choose the particular credit instrument (money) that enables their reciprocal exchange.

Through history, money has undergone a transformation from commodity money over the intermediate step of symbolic money – slips of paper that represent goods or values on deposit somewhere, to credit money, slips of paper that are no longer based on any deposited values but on someone's willingness to give credit. The step from credit money to simple credit clearing is now within our reach, and we do not need the banks to "own" that credit. It is ours to give and put to use.

A multitude of problems derive from abuse of the credit creation function. The great leap forward that credit money represented was, and still is, perverted by a financial regime that centralizes power and concentrates wealth. The monopolistic control over credit, exercised through a banking cartel armed with government-granted privilege, allows wealth to be extracted from producer clients and, despite the trappings of democracy, the control of governments to be maintained in the hands of a few. Credit is allocated on a biased basis to favored clients, including central governments, which distorts both the system of economic rewards and the exercise of political power. Under this regime, the people's own credit is privatized and "loaned" back to them at interest. The enormous benefits that credit money makes possible can be realized only if credit is created democratically on a proper value basis by the people themselves.

Greco points to credit clearing that isn't dependent on the banks as an emerging alternative:

The most graceful and promising approach to empowering ourselves and our communities is through voluntary, entrepreneurial activities that can liberate the exchange process and reclaim the credit commons. While we may not be able to do much in the short-run to change the legal privilege of political currencies or bank-created credit money, we can reduce our dependence upon them. The way to do that is by taking control of our own credit, and organizing independent means for allocating it directly to those individuals and businesses that we trust and wish to support. ... Only popular control of credit and competition in currencies can transcend the money problem.

So rather than further centralizing currency, we should be going in the direction of subjecting money to the competition of a free market, and to abandon the artificial support for one type of bank-issued money that has been at the base of a money monopoly with all its distorting influences on the real economy.

Greco then goes on to discuss existing complementary currencies and why they have failed - so far - to make a big difference in the real economy. The next step, he says, will be a "complete web-based trading platform" which, to work properly, will need its own marketplace, it will be based on a social network, it will provide a means of payment and it needs its own measure of value.

The question now becomes: Who will develop such a web-based trading platform and how will it be governed?

In my view, the next currency will be open source. It won't be centrally controlled by the banks, but neither will it be owned by any one credit clearing service. The software that allows to keep track of payments should just be that - a program that provides for record keeping.

The contract by which we give the credit that is subsequently used to make payments should be between any two participants in economic life, and it should be in a way similar to the GNU public license that defines and guarantees the freedom of free software. Just like code should be free, money in the sense of a "web based trading platform" should be free. Not free as in free beer, but free as in freedom to adopt, freedom to use, and freedom to amend procedures and parameters.

How exactly to achieve this will be the subject of much discussion and some thinking. I have some ideas, but they need to mature a bit more. Suffice it to say that the system should be supported and run by the participants in the economic game.

Meanwhile - do get a copy of Greco's book. It gives you the grounding you need for participating in the development of the next big thing, or at the very least it will allow you to recognize when that next thing has been hatched by the bright minds who are already at it, and to be one of the first to adopt the new money.

Amazon: The End of Money and the Future of Civilization

Chelsea GREEN: The End of Money and the Future of Civilization

Beyond Money: Devoted to the liberation of money and credit, and the restoration of the commons