What happens to money when there's no cash?: David Lindberg at TEDxCanberra 2012

Good afternoon. I think the end of money is closer than many realize. What's interesting is what happens after money disappears. Technology is light years ahead. Two key things: NFC chips and secure elements. These will transform payments. Companies are investing billions: banks, marketing companies like Google and Facebook, payment companies like PayPal and Mastercard, and handset manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. Consumer behavior is shifting: mobile banking is now dominant, and contactless payments are growing rapidly. In Australia, one in six transactions are contactless. The end of cash is near. Then there's mcommerce, which is held back by the difficulty of entering credit card details on a phone. Mobile checkout will solve that with one-click buying. It's a winner-take-all market with likely four players. Those four could dominate all commerce. Then I'll get speculative: photo recognition, optimized web searches, global logistics. Imagine Shazam for everything: point your phone at anything and buy it. Retail becomes a showroom. We might end up with only five types of companies: the four retailers, efficient wholesalers, patent-protected innovators, cyber security firms, and logistics companies. Crime shifts to cyber crime. And finally, what if one of these companies creates a global secondary currency, convertible to any other, and privately owned? That would have huge implications for monetary policy. I want you to think about the knock-on effects of these technological changes. Thank you.