Bonjour.

The symbols we pursue determine our future.

More than any other symbol, humanity’s trust is placed in the symbol of money. Money has been a great coordinating tool, enabling large groups of people in different geographies to pursue a vast variety of projects. Money has progressed civilization. However, as we’ve gotten deeper into the information age, the symbol of money has degraded. Pursuing money is not always a meaningful way to spend your life.

Some problems with the symbol:

• Money can be “earned” by completing tasks that aren’t actually valuable (i.e. optimizing ads platforms or damaging the planet or working on redundant projects or creating financial products derivative of a lie)
• Money can be “printed” without the creation of value (i.e. what the U.S. Federal Reserve effectively does by controlling money supply)
• Money can be held and not invested into value creation (i.e. wealth inequality).

Beyond money, other symbols we pursue in order to lead a meaningful life include “god’s will” and religious scripture as well as a nation’s “laws” and founding documents such as a constitution.

All of today’s symbols- including our economic, religious, and political symbols- were created in a non-digital age. As information has become freely available, these symbols have lost power. Using the U.S. as an example: belief in god, trust in government, and finding meaning through work are all on the decline.

The symbols that provide us with meaning are losing their efficacy.

This is bad for two reasons: 1) As an individual person, it becomes difficult to lead a fulfilling life and 2) As a species, it becomes difficult to know which direction to steer the ship of civilization.

To put it another way- as our symbols stop working, they stop telling us what’s important to focus on. We can no longer trust our symbols to guide us down a meaningful path.

So, here we find ourselves. With symbols that are breaking, leading to individual and collective confusion over what is meaningful to focus on. At the same time, we have incredible new tools to coordinate meaningful action: computers and the internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology.

This munny.org project is asking the question: how can we leverage modern technology to create a symbol fit for a digital age?

While Munny may end up being a better money, the goal is to create a meaningful symbol, which may or may not resemble the actual behavior of money.

Solving the few problems of money written above would be a good start.