As strange as this may sound, a “promise to pay” made by a bank to you is termed money because these promises serve in effect as money. In other words, our global monetary system is made up of things like IOU’s, bonds and guarantees, but there is no actual money.

… open an account with one of the many decentralised peer-to-peer alternative currency exchanges that will become available. These won’t be connected to any bank which means that you can transact anywhere in the world without using dollars, euros or yen. Instead, you will trade with alternative currencies. Naturally, there will be no bank charges, no transaction fees and certainly no interest.