Virtual Money Makes the World Go Round: Paypal, Bitcoin, and the Global Politics of Demonetization

3 units

Markets are shifting from paper to virtual currencies, but are the benefits experienced evenly around the world? This course will examine the transformation to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and mobile payment systems like Paypal. It will ask how state governments and policymakers are responding and the impact for communities of the poor, ethnic minorities, and women in the global south. Can mobile money circumvent broadscale governmental corruption, or does it solidify the power of elites? Are farmers in Kenya able to use their phones to get better prices for their harvests, or do mobile payment apps submerge them in debt to financial institutions? Why does the demonetization program in India, which removed lower-currency paper bills from circulation, rob rural women of their life savings? Who are the hidden workers of these new industries, like villagers in outsourcing centers who process financial data for the global north? What is the impact on the environment, as Bitcoin servers around the world collectively consume as much energy as the country of Denmark? What does it mean that widespread cryptocurrencies are operating completely outside of state regulations and oversight? We will bring in financial and international development experts and explore local debates in St. Louis, such as the role of our tech hub in designing mobile payment apps and the activist campaigns against payday lenders.