BBC World Service - The Compass, Money, Money, Money, Money, money, money: Trust

We do not trust the stranger, or the next-door neighbour – we trust the coin they hold. If they run out of coins, we run out of trust. As money brings down the dams of community, religion and state, the world is in danger of becoming one big and rather heartless marketplace.

Money has an even darker side. For although money builds universal trust between strangers, this trust is invested not in humans, communities or sacred values, but in money itself and in the impersonal systems that back it.

In the past, trust was purely social (think the caveman days). Then it switched to trusted institutions (banks, governments, companies) which was a step up, but we still had to rely on the other parties goodwill, or their incentive to behave in the right way.
The problem today is that institutions have become the sole gatekeepers of trust. We are st

the absence of trust adds immense costs to transactions. When we do business with people we know and trust, we are willing to extend credit, send orders before we receive payment, and otherwise take steps to speed a transaction. When we lack that trust, we invoke intricate mechanisms to prevent bad behavior.

We need a new “epistemic currency,” common to everyone. Fortunately, one already exists, and it’s more fundamental than facts: Trust.

Chesky believes that a “trusted intermediary” and secure payment system have a lot to do with this record.