the cynicism of the financial industry, culminating in the 2008 mutual hand-washing for which NOBODY has stood trial, showed us all that the banking/insurance/investment community and the government it pays for cannot be trusted. the result - a democratized system in which the system itself creates the trust in value that money was supposed to represent. facebook's is merely the stage at which central bankers understand that a corporation strong enough to face down governments can provide a solution that applies to a 2-3bn user ecosystem. yes. it's frightening that the corporation we're referring to is just as cynical and careless with our privacy (privacy? what's that?). but make no mistake: there are lots of other ecosystems out there (the linux community, the LGBT movement...). and sooner or later, if the banks dont get their act together, the next revolution will be bloodless but just as earth-shattering.