Technology executives are known for bold predictions, but Elon Musk’s latest forecast is unusually sweeping: He believes money could become obsolete within the next decade.
Musk has a history of setting aggressive timelines for technologies ranging from autonomous driving to Mars colonization, many of which have taken longer than predicted.
His argument rests on advances in artificial general intelligence (AGI) and robotics eventually making much human labor unnecessary while dramatically reducing the cost of producing goods and services.
However, eliminating money would require far more than technological abundance. It would also fundamentally change how resources are distributed and how economic power is exercised.
Let’s examine what a moneyless economy might actually require, how automation could change the distribution of economic power, and whether Musk’s 2036 timeline is remotely plausible. We’ll close with my Product of the Week, a hardware wallet designed to give users greater control over their digital assets.
