Grateful to Simon Cocking and the Irish Tech News for this beautiful review of Cashless!
Irish Tech News Review of Cashless
Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, Richard Turrin, reviewed
An important and fascinating new book by Richard Turrin, who has been doing a great job of explaining what is happening in China from his unique perspective and location. This is a book that needed to be written, and is delivered by someone who is well informed and the right person to write it. You can buy the book here.
There is a touching dedication at the beginning of the book to his mother, who, like so many parents, inspired the next generation to read. The foreword clearly illustrates why this book is timely and an important read. Turrin is also quick to point out that China’s move towards a cashless society has not happened over night, but is rather the result of a long planned strategy. Their crackdowns on bitcoin mining for example seem to be less about a lack of faith in digital currencies, but rather the desire to ensure that their population are using the ‘right’, digital currencies from the government’s perspective.
Turrin also powerfully makes the point too, that, regardless of how you feel about China, it’s move into this space is something that will be extremely significant for the west. In many other books we are currently reviewing, including The Rule of the Robots by Martin Ford, the point is made again and again, that, due to the amount of mobile first and mobile only transactions, payments and many many more services happening in China within their own digital ecosystems.
There is already a plethora of data, and AI empowered learning, and with it the insights and power to move to a cashless and digital only currency. China is significant, influential and their actions are something to be watched and learned from, or ignored at your peril.
Turrin has written this book for a variety of different types of readers, and offers suggestions about which chapters to read first, depending on where you are coming from and your own particular areas of expertise. He wrote much of the book during the global pandemic and acknowledges that he often had to revise text and ideas based upon the rapid changes taking place in the world. At the same time he also illustrates that Wuhan’s ability to survive a lockdown was massively under estimated by non Chinese based journalists.
This was because a digital and cashless payment system was in place, thereby easily enabling people to get around lockdown circumstances and still order and pay for their necessary food and other purchases. In the rest of the world the pandemic lockdown restrictions nudged many businesses into a more digital facing method of operating. In China however the barriers were already much much lower.
The decade Turrin spent in Shanghai is one of the reasons why this book is such a compelling read, and made him perfectly positioned to write this book. We really enjoyed reading it, and would deeply recommend that you do also if you want to see where the world is heading in terms of cashless, digital payments.
More about the book
China is changing the very nature of money and borrowing heavily from cryptocurrency to cement its role as the world’s financial technology leader.
Cashless is written by the best-selling author of Innovation Lab Excellence, an award-winning expert in fintech innovation, career banker, and technology expert who has experienced China’s cashless revolution firsthand as a former US resident living in China. It reveals how:
- China’s digital currency can help you better predict and navigate the cashless future coming to the US—and the world
- Your company may be tempted to use China’s digital currency to make cross-border payments
- The EU, UK, Japan, and India are developing digital currencies
- Digital payment will change our relationship with money and promote financial inclusion
Cashless shows you the future. It offers a comprehensive analysis of China’s digital payment systems so that you can better prepare for the rise of digital currencies.
It is a must-read for all business leaders and professionals looking for a decided competitive advantage.
