The US dollar (USD), Euro, GBP, Yen, in fact, potentially all major currencies are transitioning from a “storage of labour” to a “storage of value” (or, in some interpretations - “storage of asset”) and this is being fuelled by the economic impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on money’s foundational role in society. Indeed, Elon Musk recently predicted: “Working is set to become optional”. Interesting, given that in the UK, 57% of the government’s income is generated from payee, income tax and national insurance and in the USA 84% of government income is derived from income, medicare and social security taxes. Therefore, if this is the case, then how will governments and currencies adapt to a post-labour economy?
Waymo is coming to London
Source: Waymo
According to Jerry He, Head of Innovation & APAC Partnerships at CoMotion GLOBAL and Executive Director of the Corporation for Automated Road Transportation Safety (CARTS), a Princeton and New York-based nonprofit think tank: “ Today you can expect to pay $2-3 per mile for Uber’s standard service, UberX, depending on geography (urban/suburban) and excluding tips. He believes that within the next 2-3 years, robotaxis will be able to achieve profits at only $1 per mile. Within 4-5 years, they’ll be able to operate profitably while only charging 50¢ per mile.” Bearing in mind the black cab in London is about to be ‘Waymonised’, this is not good news for the 45,000 Uber drivers in the capital. Furthermore, ‘Waymonisations’ threaten the 9 million Uber drivers globally. Elon Musk’s predictions may sound alarmist to some, or even extreme, but humanoid robots are going on sale for only $20,000 ($499 per month) which, assuming a 20-hour working day as even robots will need some time to recharge, then these robots will cost $0.83 (or £0.63) an hour. Compare this to the £19.67 UK average hourly income and you can see why a government relying on income tax as a source of revenue is going to be sorely challenged. In a recent poll, the Institute for Government found that “49% of those asked supported an annual levy of around 2% on wealth in excess of £10m”. So, maybe this is why the French are proposing wealth taxes....
The traditional view: money as “storage of labour”
In classical economics (e.g., drawing from thinkers such as Adam Smith or Karl Marx’s labour theory of value), money has historically served as a proxy for human labour. It represents the crystallised effort of workers - the hours toiling in a factory, farm or office then translate into wages, which are stored as currency. This “stored labour” can then be exchanged for goods or services produced by others’ labour. In modern fiat systems, this ties into modern monetary theory (MMT) and the mechanics of government-backed money. The country’s currency value derives partly from the US government’s ability to tax labour: it spends money into existence via deficits but demands them back through income taxes on wages and productivity. This then creates demand for the currency - people need $, £, € etc to pay taxes on their labour output, making it a reliable store of that value. Without labour taxation as the anchor, the system risks instability (e.g., inflation if money chases too few goods). Hence, essentially, the fiat currencies have been a “receipt for labour”: work hard for your £, $, €, etc, and store that effort for future use. This has worked well in industrial economies where human labour has been the primary driver of value creation. Since the 1950’s, house prices in gold ounces are almost exactly the same as present day, as seen in the charts below. However, salaries have dropped two thirds, meaning you have to work almost three times longer to buy the same house from the 1950’s.
Source: TPX Property Exchanges
The shift: from labour to assets/value in an AI-driven world
The catalyst for this transition is the explosive growth of generative AI and automation, which is dramatically deflating the cost and centrality of labour. As AI handles coding, writing, design, manufacturing and even creative tasks, the share of economic value tied directly to human hours plummets. For instance, a software engineer might once command $150/hour for custom code; now, AI tools such as Grok or ChatGPT models generate it both in seconds and for pennies in compute costs. As per estimates from McKinsey and similar reports, entire industries (e.g., customer service, logistics) see labour’s marginal contribution shrink from 70-80% of costs to under 20%. Meanwhile, as labour’s role diminishes, governments can no longer rely solely on “taxing labour” for its legitimacy. Instead, it evolves into a storage of value or, more precisely, a storage of asset backed claims.
Asset-centric backing
The currencies in most jurisdictions increasingly represent claims on financial assets such as stocks, real estate, bonds and intellectual property (e.g., AI patents). Wealth concentrates in capital ownership rather than wage labour, so the fiat currencies store value from asset appreciation, rents and dividends. Think of it as money now “backing” a portfolio of ETFs or tokenised real estate, not merely a pay cheque.
Decoupling from productivity
In a low-labour world, inflation risks flip less from overprinting money (since fewer goods need labour to produce) and more from asset bubbles. The Fed’s/HMRC’s tools shift toward managing asset prices (e.g., via quantitative easing that props up markets) rather than just employment stats.
This mirrors historical shifts: Gold-backed money stored “value from mining labour”, fiat briefly stored “national productive capacity” and now it is storing “algorithmic and capital efficiencies”.
A key quote capturing this is: “As direct labour’s contribution to economic value diminishes, currencies such as the US dollar (USD) are transitioning toward a ‘storage of value’- a shift that prioritises stability and utility in transactions over reliance on labour taxation.” In short, the USD is not dying; it is ‘re-tooling’ for a world where value accrues to owners of AI infrastructure and data, not factory floors. And, as Bill Gates reminded us: “The inventory, the value of my company walks out the door every day.”
Implications for the USD and the global economy
Strengths of the shift:· global reserve status - the USD’s network effects (it is already 60% of global reserves) make it ideal as a neutral “value store”. Stablecoins such as USDT or USDC pegged 1:1 to the USD extend this digitally, enabling frictionless cross-border payments without labour-tied volatility. They are exploding in adoption (e.g., $300B+ market cap in 2025) because they prioritise stability over sovereignty.
· deflationary tailwinds - AI-driven productivity could make the USD stronger as a store of value, akin to how Bitcoin is pitched as “digital gold”. Cheaper goods mean your dollar buys more, reinforcing its appeal.
Risks and challenges:
· inequality amplification - if value stores in assets, wealth gaps widen and labourers become obsolete whilst asset holders (e.g., Big Tech) thrive. This could spark social unrest or demands for universal basic income (UBI), funded by... asset taxes?
· policy headaches - central banks such as the Fed must navigate “asset inflation” (e.g., soaring stock prices) separate from consumer inflation. Tariffs or trade wars (as seen in 2025’s policy debates) could accelerate de-dollarisation if rivals such as the Euro or Yuan pitch themselves as “labour neutral” alternatives.
Stablecoins bridge the gap, but if the USD fully detaches from labour, it risks becoming a “casino chip” for speculators rather than a productive tool, echoing critiques of fiat as “debt-based Ponzi”. This idea is not isolated; it echoes thinkers such as Yanis Varoufakis (on “techno-feudalism”), where capital lords extract rents via tech, or Ray Dalio (on money as a “claim on future productivity”), now skewed by AI. By 2030, projections suggest AI could automate 30-50% of jobs, forcing this transition and for the USD, it means doubling down on being the world’s “safe asset”. Think Treasuries as the new gold, backed by US innovation hegemony. The dollar feels “unshakable” amid the current chaos. It is not storing sweat anymore; it is storing the future. As for banks being Waymonised, well, potentially, programmable payments slash the cost of paying for goods and services. AI could unlock a $370 billion annual profit windfall for retail banks: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates large-scale deployment could cut costs by up to 40%. AI, too, will potentially automate many highly paid jobs. How long will it be before digital wallets replace bank accounts and compliance officers and regulators start focusing, not on KYC/AML on entities but on the source and application of funds themselves? AI 24/7 risk-driven monitoring, AI-powered wealth, together with money management 24/7 seeking out the best place to deposit your cash, are becoming ever closer as, indeed, are self-driven taxis.
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This article first appeared in Digital Bytes (10th of December , 2025), a weekly newsletter by Jonny Fry of Team Blockchain.