Good overview – the development of Bitcoins and other digital currencies and affinity programs (with 'points') indicate some fundamental changes to the nature of currency, wealth and work in developed economies.

As pointed out in your response to one post, goods deflation can seem to be 'good' (more and better products for the same or less money.) However, services deflation (somewhat masked by money supply inflation) is now becoming well intrenched since the Great Recession. We are becoming used to not relying so much on manufacturing in our economies, which will stand us in good stead as 3-D printers become more common, but what will we all do if Google drives the taxis and IT services are all outsourced to India?

My (developing) theory is that evolving digital tracking and accounting systems are changing the definition of the value of how we spend our time – you can now earn 'credit' not just for shopping (affinity programs) but for simply watching advertisements, or even being a contributor to certain blogs. Stateless media of exchange for such credits (such as Bitcoins) are a natural development and, eventually, many fewer people will need to find a job for their livelihood.