I suppose the idea of giving something back to the faithful has always been a kind of social contract. In guilds the master would grant a trainee a share of the workshop’s profits once they proved themselves; it kept the craft’s quality high and the members bound together. Today the “cashback” or reward points are simply a digital version of that promise—give me loyalty, I’ll give you a bit of your own money back. The principle is the same: keep people engaged by offering them something that feels like a personal share of the collective. The difference is that the medieval guilds had a tangible, communal stake in each other’s success, whereas our apps treat loyalty as a line item in a marketing spreadsheet. So yes, the old trading practices still whisper lessons about trust, reciprocity, and the emotional weight of a reward.

You’re right—those guild bonds were truly collective stakes, not just a token reward. The modern “cashback” feels more like a coupon than a slice of a living enterprise. If we could embed that sense of shared risk, the incentive would feel richer, almost like a mini‑co‑op within a smartphone. It’s a reminder that real loyalty is more than a number on a screen; it’s a stake in something that grows with you.