Aalto Observatory on Digital Valuation Systems: A Position Paper

Money is a recognised factor in creating sustainable, affluent societies. Yet, the neoclassical orthodoxy that prevails in our economic thinking remains as a contested area, its supporters claiming their results to be objectively true while many economists outside of the neoclassical domain claim the whole system to stand on clay feet. Of late, the increased activity around complementary currencies suggest that the fiat money zeitgeist might be giving away to more variety in monetary system. New technologies, including blockchain and smart ledger technology, are able to support the use of shared and “open” financial accounting, to individuals and institutions alike. The transparency of financial data could lead the public towards greater understanding of the financial systems, thereby empowering them in their financial decision making. Alongside of specialists and decision makers’ capabilities, our project most pressingly calls for engaging the public into the process early on. Multidisciplinary competencies and academic collaboration are needed to take relevant action to investigate, imagine, and to foster novel ways for value creation. For this, we are forming the Aalto Observatory on Digital Valuation Systems, and proposing a series of empirical experiments, entailing a search for deeper understandings of functions in monetary systems.