No Mo Money

It's easy to be impressed when you see something like this New York Times article about Paypal, Citibank, and others making apps that pay for something by tapping your Iphone to a pad or plugging in your credit card to a USB....then you have to wonder.  What's the real difference?  I mean in the developing world, when this works over there, it's a huge deal.  In places that lack an electric grid or lots of access to ATM's etc it's easy to see how this innovation will really be important. 

However, this example was of two guys at a restuarant in San Francisco where one bumped the other's iphone to pay for his share of the meal.  Was it really too much trouble to scan your card?  Is your life that busy?  Is this really chaning the way we interact with money/value? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/technology/29cashless.html?hp

If you want to see the real innovation in the way people percieve/ view their money check out the latest RSF Social Finance newsletter with articles by Don Schaffer of RSF, Leslie Christian of Portofolio 21, and more.

http://rsfsocialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/04/2010-Q2-Social-Finance-Quarterly-lo-res.pdf