From Trust to Tokenisation — And What the Evolution of Money Teaches Us

Hi, I’m Clint, founder of C-Sure Consulting. This week’s edition of C-Shorts explores how the way we think about money is changing. From homeless people on the high street to blockchain in big business, there are shifts all around us. But with digital dependence comes a new kind of vulnerability, and a clear call to act....

💰 The Cost of Change I was in the centre of Sheffield recently and got approached a couple of times by people asking for spare change. I reached into my pocket instinctively but of course I didn't have any cash on me at all. I barely ever carry coins or paper money these days, except maybe a pound coin for the supermarket trolley (when I remember!).

It left me wondering how this shift towards a cashless society is affecting those who rely on street donations to survive. We’re moving further and further away from physical currency and while digital payments are undoubtedly more convenient, it’s not without consequence. 🐷 Pound Piles and Piggy Banks

I still remember the satisfaction I used to get from saving. Doing jobs around the house to earn my pocket money, getting birthday money from relatives — it all went straight into my piggy bank. Then every now and then I’d tip it all out, sort it all into piles of £1, and count how much I had. It felt like real progress.

I’d save up for something I really wanted, like a new record, or the latest computer game, and I’d hand over a big pile of coins in the shop and someone rang them through a till. There was a connection to the process.

My own kids still enjoy counting coins now and then, but it’s not the same. Their money lives in apps or accounts. They buy digital items using tokens or in-game currencies I can barely keep up with. And I do wonder: as we move further away from physical money, are we also losing that emotional connection to saving, spending, and maybe even earning?

🪙 Tokenomics and Tomorrow's Transactions

Look around and you’ll see it everywhere: Robux, V‑Bucks, loyalty points, airline miles, crypto wallets. From contactless to crypto, we’re clearly entering the era of tokenomics — systems where value is stored and shared through code and consensus rather than coins and notes.

One of my favourite writers, Yuval Noah Harari, has written about how money works only because of mutual belief; we all have to trust that others will value it too, or else the entire system collapses. And most money, after all, is just numbers on a screen. In fact less than 10% of global currency exists as physical cash. The rest is just pure data.

Which raises the question: if most of the world's value lives in these systems, then how secure are they?..

🔒 Hack Hits and Hidden Costs

And just as money moves deeper into the digital realm, so do the threats. Cyber attacks are making headlines more and more frequently these days... M&S and Co-op shared learnings from cyber attacks that hit their businesses in April with MPs yesterday.

M&S described it as an “out-of-body experience”, one that’s expected to cost them up to £300m. Their entire digital operation had to be rebuilt, with back-office recovery not expected until October. The company said bluntly: if the attack had happened a few years ago, they’d have been finished.

The Co-op responded faster, triggering continuity protocols and stopping ransomware from being deployed. But even so, customer data was accessed and operations were disrupted. Both businesses warned that no organisation is immune, and that cyber simulations had played a big role in preparing them.

This really resonated with me, as we continue to work on our Cyber Attack Simulation Tool here at C-Sure Consulting. We look forward to having it ready soon so we can start helping businesses test and strengthen their responses to these threats. At a recent cyber security event, former hacker turned CISO Greg van der Gaast made an interesting comparison: airlines don’t recheck every bolt before takeoff — they build better bolts. In the software world, however, the tendency is to patch up the vulnerable points after something goes wrong, often pushing the risk onto the user.

It’s a reactive mindset that’s simply not scaling. Most modern apps are built on layers of open-source components, some with known flaws.

Tools like Software Bills of Materials (or SBOMs: a kind of digital ingredient list for software) can help trace these vulnerabilities, but even those are underused. Until software vendors take more responsibility for quality and security, the risks will keep on multiplying.

This also applies to supply chains. Complex digital ecosystems and long vendor lists mean more exposure. And if just one link is weak, the whole system is compromised. That’s something hackers already know all too well. ✅ Proactive Beats Reactive Every Time

Whether you’re tracking goods or moving money, today’s systems rely on layers of tech that were never designed to work together perfectly. And while tokenisation, AI and blockchain offer exciting improvements, they also introduce new risks.

That’s why it pays to:

• Map your systems and suppliers — digitally and physically

• Pressure test your protocols — don’t wait for a crisis to find the cracks

• Invest in prevention, not just response — stronger bolts, not more patches

If your operations depend on data, then cyber resilience and system compatibility are business-critical. The threat may be invisible, but the impact is all too real.

🤝 Let’s Keep Connected

What challenges are you seeing right now in your own business?

Are you seeing signs that your systems might need a rethink? I’d love to hear from you — comment below or get in touch with us directly. Until next time...

💡 C-Sure Shortcut of the Week

Not all threats come with warning signs.

Strengthen your systems now, before risk becomes reality.