Dutch Project Maps Finance as Waterworks, With Bitcoin as One Possible Future
A drawing that explains how money really moves
Three Dutch researchers have built a project that shows the financial system as a network of reservoirs, channels and pumps. The work is called The Waterworks of Money. It was made by artist Carlijn Kingma, investigative financial journalist Thomas Bollen and monetary researcher Martijn Jeroen van der Linden.
The project presents the system as an architectural landscape. In the drawing, some parts of society receive a lot of liquidity — meaning available money — while other parts stay dry. The creators describe the drawing as artwork, an educational tool and a study of financial power at the same time.
One scenario in the project looks at a monetary future shaped by bitcoin. According to the article, as bitcoin enters traditional finance, an alternative monetary system either challenges existing structures of financial power or eventually becomes part of them. The collaborators say they have watched both happen.
Two years, 100 interviews, 2,200 hours of drawing
- The project came out of two years of research, including interviews with more than 100 experts in banking, government, academia and monetary reform movements.
- Kingma spent more than 2,200 hours turning that research into the drawing.
- Bollen developed the economic research and narratives behind the work; van der Linden's academic research covers money and monetary reform.
- Bollen is scheduled to join two panels at Bitcoin Amsterdam on November 5-6.
What the researchers say about how banks work
Bollen said the biggest surprise was that many people inside finance understand their own area well — such as interest rate derivatives, asset management or mortgage lending — but very few can see the larger system they work in.
He said it is not widely understood that banks create new money when they make a loan, and that banks are not only intermediaries passing on depositors' savings. He added that during the research the team spoke with many bankers, including a CEO of a major bank, who did not know they worked for a money-creating institution.
Bollen also said economics textbooks often get this wrong, and that schooling should address it. He pointed to the 2022 Riksbank prize in economics, describing it as the Nobel prize that is not really a Nobel prize, being awarded for research that presents banks as mere intermediaries.
Cheap credit, asset prices and inequality
Asked how much inequality comes from the design of the monetary system rather than broader economic forces, Bollen said no precise number is possible because many factors play a role. He said it is quite clear the money system greatly worsened inequality during the years when credit was extremely cheap.
He cited a 2019 remark by Ray Dalio, founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates: "Money is free for those who are creditworthy." Bollen said that for people without money or creditworthiness, it was out of reach.
According to Bollen, cheap credit for wealthy people and large multinationals — who used it for share buybacks and mergers and acquisitions — pushed up the prices of shares and houses. He described bank money creation as producing a specific kind of inflation: asset inflation. In his account, wealthy households and large multinationals that already owned those assets benefited far more than people who owned none, or small businesses that lacked the same access to cheap credit as larger competitors.
The hardest part to draw
Kingma said the biggest challenge was showing how all the parts of the system are connected. She said water is the obvious metaphor for money.
What is confirmed
The project's existence, its authors, its water-based design, its two years of research, the interviews with more than 100 experts, Kingma's 2,200-plus hours of drawing, the bitcoin scenario, and Bollen's two panels at Bitcoin Amsterdam on November 5-6 are all stated in the source article.
What is still unclear
The source does not give the results of the project's bitcoin scenario, nor any data on how much inequality the monetary system causes. Bollen explicitly said a precise number is impossible. Ray Dalio's 2019 remark is reported secondhand in the interview, and the claim that bankers did not understand money creation is an account of the researchers' interviews rather than a documented finding.
Why it matters
The project aims to make the financial system understandable to the people living inside it. Its bitcoin scenario frames a question the article does not answer: whether an alternative monetary system changes existing structures of financial power or ends up joining them.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.