Tomorrow the wallet PC will make it easy for anyone to spend and accept digital funds. Your wallet will link into a store’s computer to allow money to be transferred without any physical exchange at a cash register. If your son needs money, you might digitally slop five bucks from your PC wallet to his.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”Rather than holding paper currency, the new wallet will store unforgettable digital money. Today when hand someone a dollar bill, check, gift certificate, or other negotiable instrument, the transfer of paper represents a transfer of funds. But money does not have to be expressed on paper. Credit card charges and wired funds are exchanges of digital financial information. Tomorrow the wallet PC will make it easy for anyone to spend and accept digital funds. Your wallet will link into a store’s computer to allow money to be transferred without any physical exchange at a cash register. If your son needs money, you might digitally slop five bucks from your PC wallet to his.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Internet Appliances
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 4: Applications and Appliances
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 74, 75
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne