Inverse Fintech: A New Perspective on the Creation of Economic Value (Innovations in Science and Technologies)

Summary

• The paper asks whether an asset depreciated to little or no accounting value could become the starting point for a different kind of economic value.p.1
• Digital technologies can document an asset's performance and the activities it supports, creating information that may become valuable in its own right.p.2
• The author calls the opposite movement of declining physical asset value and rising information-derived value Asset Value Inversion.p.2
• Pay-as-you-go financing (PAYGo) only changes the sequence of a transaction, which the author says is not the inversion described.p.2
• Value may arise for four parties: the individual or household, research, the environment and the original asset owner.p.3
• The author presents the idea as a concept for academic examination, not as a proven economic theory.p.4
• No claim is made that the proposed economic effects have yet been empirically demonstrated.p.5

Key insights

1. The concept targets productive assets that have served their original commercial purpose and carry little or no accounting value.p.1
2. The physical asset may keep depreciating while information generated through its use becomes more useful and potentially valuable.p.2
3. A household using an asset and meeting its obligations could build a verified record of economic behaviour that supports creditworthiness.p.3
4. Reliable measurements of replaced polluting activity may support verification of emission reductions and, subject to rules, carbon credits.p.3
5. The four value sources are possibilities to be examined and verified, not guaranteed income.p.3
6. Whether the information becomes valuable depends on its quality, its verification and whether independent institutions or markets recognise it.p.4