The 2019 competition is themed: “Design the financial crime of the future“. Creative practitioners are invited to employ a speculative design approach and design a future financial crime. A crime which utilizes a new loophole, a change in social convention or specific technology development.
The Grand Prize for 2019 is 3,000 Euro and each shortlisted project will be awarded with 1,000 Euro. The shortlisted entrants will have the opportunity to present their concepts at Money20/20 Europe to an audience of financial experts and industry leaders, where the Grand Prize winner will be chosen.
This year’s competition theme is described in details on the official website:
Arguably there has been no greater time of financial uncertainty than today and no greater need for fresh ideas and imaginative insights which help inform, suggest and question our current technological, social and cultural direction.
Crime, whether we like it or not, is a driving force behind a large proportion of technological ‘progress’. In 1817, a burglary at a British dockyard led the government to start a competition, challenging locksmiths to invent an unpickable lock. The result was the Chubb detector lock, and it remained ‘unpicked’ for 33 years.
In the past, adding another lock, or increasing the wall thickness of a safe was the obvious solution to deter theft. However, money is no longer physical, it is now predominantly a data set shared via telecommunications, secured via encryption, transacted via smartphone or exchanged into V-bucks. As our money becomes completely electronic, new crimes will undoubtedly be committed, which take advantage of the technology itself or the social conventions on which it rests. Perhaps if we could imagine what crimes might happen, we could start to think about how to prevent them.
What financial crimes could be committed within a completely electronic marketplace?
The Future of Money Award has been running since 2009 and was created to develop links between the financial industry and creative practitioners from around the world. This is achieved by awarding the opportunity to present thought-provoking ideas to a group of financial experts and industry leaders during Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam.
No Entry Fee!
It’s free to enter.