Image via WikipediaMobile banking is just a channel, where we can inquiry our balance and send money to other accounts with a mobile phone at this moment. But I believe sooner or later, mobile banking will be more than just a channel but a bank itself and furthermore to be “Money“ itself.Hypothetically, let us assume Apple inc. is planning to be “money” creator, with iPhone6. What Apple inc. needs to prepare is a bookkeeping system, which tracks down who owns how much money, say, Apple iMoney. As long as transactions happen within Apple iMoney (a buyer transfers money to a seller and both are using iPhone6), what Apple inc. needs to do is just to update the bookkeeping system, to change the ownership of the currency iMoney. In other words, in case users want to transfer out his/her iMoney out of the iMoney ecosystem governed by the apple bookkeeping system, the total amount of iMoney has to diminish. For example, withdrawing iMoney to Cash with ATM, exchanging iMoney for another currency. The key to understand this iMoney scheme is, “Money is just information serving medium of exchange”.
For this iMoney scheme to be “real” as the global currency, Apple needs a big data center in Northern California and mobile phones, smart enough to connect to Internet and send encrypted data, “exchange” rates of various currencies, and the most importantly, “credibility” for users to feel comfortable relying upon the company, more than relying upon nation states.
We can buy a same music in various countries with iPhone now. The same music, from the same store, by the same infrastructure, with the same payment process. Why not the same common denominator called “iMoney”?
The technology is ready, how about your mindset?
