3 ms·

Money can be relevant if, say, having some reserves at the right time makes the difference between gaining access to the technology or being left out. It's all

• Applejinx 9y ago
  Money is only abstracted influence. What if you managed to get enough direct influence that you could get access to the technology without ever having to work through a money stage? Happens every day on YouTube, in a sense. Think 'unboxing videos' or perhaps 'endorsement deals' is a better analogy. If you can get enough social influence, you can work with technology/capabilities far outside your normal 'money' conditions, because your importance is being weighted directly. You pay taxes on such gifts because the government rightly sees this as compensation, but it didn't go through a money/abstraction stage. If you were collaborating on some creative work using but not owning tools of extraordinary value, you probably wouldn't even be taxed on it, but both sides still benefit: you don't retain the tools but you produce work on them in which you have an ownership stake.