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Top 10 Inventions in Money Technology During the 1900's
scuggums writes "The DaVinci Institute has put together an interesting historic piece to help put the world of money technology into perspective. While I'm glad to see the ATM machine made the list, I had no idea it was invented back in 1939. Other items on the list are barcodes, spreadsheets, and RSA encryption. This looks to be one of the research pieces the Institute's doing for their upcoming Future of Money Summit in October."
The first international banking system was establish ed by the Knights Templar during the crusades. It used something like a check, so that pilgrims didn't have to carry physical wealth with them along the way. The involvement of the templar in money handling is part of what made them so wealthy, which was part of what made them so feared, which was King Philip eventually rounded up and arrested the leaders of the order. I just think it's kind of interesting that banking has its roots in a militant order...
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Crudely Drawn Games
what exactly does a "smart card" have to do with money technology?
Most of the ones I've seen used are as digital tokens to access computers, enter security doors... Apart from the "credit cards" you can charge up at Kinkos (and I would consider those credit cards, not "smart cards") I've never seen one used that had a big impact on money technology.
Anyone?
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Just Imagine all the new possibilities for new cominations you can arrange if you combine the latest in technology with the old paper bill.
I'm really looking forward to the bill that makes its possible to track where the bill was, who used it and what was bought. For example, retailers could produce special targeted advertising for peole that came with money they had won in a lottery. If the retailer knows where the customer has grabbed the money its much easier to sell thing based on customer history and public profiles.
A on the security side the government can destroy money that belongs to suspected criminals and therby prevent crime before it takes place. If you don't have cash its difficault to opperate for example a drug ring.
Proud patriot and republican voter.
One of the top 10 'innovations' would have to be the removal of gold backing the Dollar, allowing for huge national deficits. A nice timeline is here.
Frankly, smart cards shouldn't be on that list, as the intended use(storing money on the card) has not been perfected against people hacking the card for more money. Smart cards trust the "client", and as any MMORPG developer can tell you, that's a bad thing. Paper money and credit cards at least have some protection, smart cards on the other hand are a relitively easy fraud source for anyone with a card writer, and the resources to use it; unlike any other method, you end up with a perfect "digital copy" of the money.
From the article:
"American Express and MasterCard became huge successes overnight, and by the mid-'70s, Congress had to begin regulation of the credit card industry by banning such practices as the mass mailing of active cards to those who had not requested them."
There have also been significant leaps in the technology that is plain old paper currency. e.g. watermarking, plastic bank notes (Australia), holograms, etc.
Would have been nice if they had explored this aspect also. Give me good old-fashioned currency any day.
Look elsewhere.
Smart cards have been used to pay for stuff like gas in europe since at least 1997. I can't give you a precise date because all i know is i saw them in use when i went to France in '97. No they were not credit or debit cards.
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Yes but they don't use it in the states, so it can't be that important, apparently.
Some guy would pretend to be a newly-arrived African immigrant, asking his victim how to "get money from a wall." At that point, his accomplice would show up, pretending to be a stranger, also asking the student to help the poor guy out. The student, taking pity, would go to the ATM, enter their PIN, withdraw X dollars to show them how it's done.
Then, supposedly, the guy 'shows' the student how to keep his wallet safe from thieves, by hiding it in a white bag in his pants, and demonstrates with the students wallet. At which point he gives the student the white bag back, and leaves. Moments later, when the student realizes the white bag he was given doesn't have his wallet, the two guys are nowhere to be found. And usually there was a very recent subsequent cash withdrawl with the student's ATM card.
It was printed in my school paper that about half a dozen people got scammed this way. It was ridiculous, and even more so when I saw the movie "The Sting", where this scam was used exactly.
This brings up some common sense. Firstly and most importantly, does anybody enter their PIN clearly and slowly on the keypad? Especially if there are strangers present? I always block the keypad, and use all 3 fingers to do it so it's entered quickly and discretely. I also can't believe the students gave their wallets to the guy to hold for only a few seconds, and didn't check when he 'gave' it back.
But anyway, it all goes back to your Sumerian "Magic Wall". The phrasing that the thief used to imply his technological innocence and lack of understanding with modern Western society, hence creating a sense of pity in the victim.
make world, not war
No anti-counterfeiting technology? (Security strips in money, inks that change color when you change the angle, microprinting)
Surely there has been SOMETHING of interest to come from the financial/tech world to be invented in the last 20 years.
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Exactly! I can't wait until the government tracks our every move and makes the information available to corporations! That should sure totally eliminate all violent crime, and with no side effects, either! Maybe they'll allow us to all have cameras in our home, next!
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
In Hong Kong we use a smart card (stored value card) called the Octopus. I wear a waterproof Octopus watch, which contains the smart chip.
With the watch/card I can:
--take a bus or minibus from home to the subway station
--get coffee and sandwich at starbucks near the subway station
--ride the subway to the ferry terminal
--stop at 7-11 and buy a magazine
--pay for the ferry to one of many smaller islands
--get a coke from the vending machine at the ferry terminal
--go to the beach at a smaller island, don't worry about my "money" getting wet -- but no, the seafood restaurants and island bars won't take the card...
The card is totally anonymous (or so they tell us). Downsides: it has an upper limit of HK$1000, good for cheap stuff but nothing big, has to be refilled in person for cash, and isn't accepted at many places other than the ones just mentioned. The local McDonald's stopped taking them about a year ago. The Octopus was originally developed by the HK subway system (govt owned, now partially privatized) "from Australian technology" and was then extended to some retailers "near" subway facilities. I have a feeling the banks and bank regulators wouldn't let them go any further -- way too threatening.
The upshot is that, except for the fact that you are required by law to carry your ID, you can basically spend a whole day outside without having to carry a wallet. Now, try to do the same thing in most other countries. Why hasn't anyone rolled this out in the US?
[By the way, the HK govt is now phasing in smart card ID cards -- haven't heard what they plan to do with the info. Big bro has a new toy!]
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My Int'l Econ prof talked about this in class. The gold-standard emerged (more or less) out of WWII and was pushed by the US. This is because the US had most of the gold. During the stagflation of the 70's, the value of the dollar dropped, and most of the gold left the US. We were down to like 40% of the WWII era. (Actually, technically, it never moved more than a few dozen feet. More or less every nation in the world except France keeps their gold at Fort Knox, and International trades are done by carting gold from one room to another inside the base)
Anyway, the gold standard fell apart because it "fixes" the relationship of one current with respect to another, and the gold acts as a kind of balast to compensate for changes in the relationship. But as you can imagine, this is pretty unstable. Floating currencies, which is what 95% of most currencies are today, automatically compensate by changing exchange rates. Geographic discrepencies are arbitraged away. The system works.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
June 27, 1967...Barclay's Bank installs the first "Barclaycash" in England. It could only handle withdrawls, and was intended for use in emergencies when the bank was closed. An American (BJ Meredith) saw it, and was amazed at why it wasn't already in the States. He and his younger brother (Don Meredith, Dallas Cowboys quarterback) put some money together, and founded Docutel, Inc. In November 1971, they installed the world's first fully automated teller machine; a Docutel Total Teller (TT) 300, in the lobby of Atlanta's Citizens & Southern National Bank. Unfortunately customers didn't know what they were, or how to use them. Finally, First National Bank of Atlanta installed one, painted it red, and called it Tillie the All-Time Teller, and spent over half a million dollars advertising it. It made headlines all over the country. By 1977, Docutel was a $31 million company. Unfortunately, competition grew, and Docutel rushed a new model (the TT2000), in September of 1977. The buttons stuck, the machine ate cards like they were candy, and the computer overloaded after several hours of use. Plus it was larger than the previous model, so banks had to knock bigger holes in the walls to replace older models. Docutel's market share plummeted from 80% to 27%. In 1982, they merged with a company named Olivetti, but even that didn't help. In 1986, they threw in the towel. They changed the banking world forever, but never survived long enough to cash in on the world they had created.
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American Express and MasterCard became huge successes overnight, and by the mid-'70s, Congress had to begin regulation of the credit card industry by banning such practices as the mass mailing of active cards to those who had not requested them.
Somehow I vaguely remember Mastercard was called MasterCharge when I was a wee tyke. Can anyone confirm?