“Money is one of the shatteringly simplifying ideas of all time……………it creates its own revolution.”—Paul J. Bohannan
“ In the streets of Sardis, circa 600 B.C., a clay jar might cost you two owls and a snake. In 600 B.C. Lydia’s King Alyattes minted the first official currency. Lydia’s currency helped the country increase both its internal and external trade, making it one of the richest empires in Asia Minor.”[1] A prehistoric currency which involved a barter system as a means of transaction for direct trade of goods and services evolved towards a development of currency that took form of coins and paper money with differing face value. As economic operations became more complex, a banking system arose that not only increased the speed of business but also increased the volume of transactions. The monetary system gained a whole new meaning as a medium of exchange. Although money by itself has no intrinsic value, it lies in how much value is attached to it by the person perceiving the goods that money can buy.
[1] http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/roots_of_money.asp#axzz1Zef7qTnh
More and more businesses are shifting towards developing operational systems to brand sharing services with a solid technological and community infrastructure. The online web network that people are part of makes several sharing resources possible by eliminating the obstacle of physical distance which was not feasible before the advent of the internet. When people interact with others online and test a particular sharing experience with positive results, it reinforces the trust within the exchange and hence they will more likely participate in more of such relationships offline too. The ‘New Sharing Economy survey’ a joint venture started by Latitude research and Sharable.net is studying trends of how people are responding to the sharing economy. The survey findings show more trusted patterns of consumer culture within the sharing services.
http://latdsurvey.net/pdf/Sharing.pdf
Essentially social trust is a huge part in this kind of economy where people share in new ways of bartering, sharing, swapping, lending, renting or trading be it virtual experiences or tangible, physical commodities and services. How universal can this system of an impersonal sharing economy with strangers be amongst different cultures and under various political, cultural and economic climates? Studies have shown higher trust ratios with lower crime and higher quality of life. I feel trust becomes a questionable issue in larger fast-paced, metropolitan cities where city dwellers often feel disconnected with their surroundings and a broader feeling of distrust prevails among them. Also the system to support the sharing economy needs to be highly organized whether it be online or offline. Does the economy drive the way people make choices in the consumer market by their acts of thinking, acting, buying, trading or is it vice versa to foster a new kind of society?
I found on ziloc.com –“rent anything online”, a votive candle holder rented for $1/day to be shipped from a 500+ miles distance. Clearly this sort of transaction would defeat the purpose of cost-savings! What are the most important factors that drive the peer-to-peer economy-is it the desire to reduce consumption by having a temporary owning experience, saving cost, enhance value of owning a commodity that is inter-changeable and hence becomes a novel exchange or an all-encompassing holistic experience?
Even though these trend setting shared economies are taking user-defined, innovative forms in the fast paced technological context; the root of what experience we may seek takes us back to the archaic times of the barter system-in that sense we have come full circle!
Trust is an important part of the sharing economy
Bartering establishes business transactions based on reciprocal exchange of demand and supply
Material Innovations 