Serendipitously, the day after writing about [amazon_link id=”0262027259″ target=”_blank” ]Virtual Economies[/amazon_link] by Vili Lehdonvirta and Edward Castronova, another new book by Edward Castronova arrived in the post, [amazon_link id=”B00KMUWRXG” target=”_blank” ]Wildcat Currency: How the Virtual Money Revolution is Transforming the Economy[/amazon_link]. It’s about the convergence of the ‘real’ and the virtual in the domain of money, although of course as money is already largely virtual, this is more about the crowding out of the previously public domain of money by private currencies: “Today anybody can be a central bank.” On a quick glance through, [amazon_link id=”B00KMUWRXG” target=”_blank” ]Wildcat Currency[/amazon_link] looks like an accessible overview of the territory.

[amazon_image id=”B00KMUWRXG” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Wildcat Currency[/amazon_image]

This is a hot subject of course. In which context , it would be remiss of me not to highlight another excellent recent book about the future of money, Dave Birch’s [amazon_link id=”1907994122″ target=”_blank” ]Identity is the New Money[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”1907994122″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Identity is the New Money (Perspectives)[/amazon_image]