I think most national currencies are based on religious-like beliefs and mass delusions to some extent. Take the USD for instance. With "in God we trust", and you have your great leaders and "prophets" i.e. founding fathers such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin printed on the back, governed by a government that is bound to the "commandments" i.e. the Constitution...
All the while, the Whitehouse mysteriously glows as the nation's printing press is busy churning out a few more batches of fiat in secret.
> I think most national currencies are based on religious-like beliefs and mass delusions to some extent.
Lol, no. Four points:
a) Money isn't value, money is a standard measuring yardstick for value.
b) Since it's just a standard way to measure stuff, pretty much anything can be money.
c) Modern fiat money like USD are IOU's from the government. They became a standard form of money because the government requires taxes to be nominated in these IOU's and because the government pays welfare and wages in them.
d) Inflation is no big deal. It just means that your standard measuring yardstick becomes shorter over time. A logistical pain in the ass, but ultimately nothing that can't be dealt with.
Wow! I got the emotional talk-down tone... Looks like I spoke blasphemy against your money!
Your reply is exactly the same type of reply one would expect from someone who is defending themselves by coming up with some quotes from the bible. The points that you gave me completely ignore my point. It's like I've said that Santa doesn't exist, but you've given me reasons for why Santa only delivers presents to kids only if they were good. All you have presented are the common "memes" that are used to prop up the shared delusion of national currencies.
I can understand you - people don't like to have have their beliefs challenged, and will defend themselves vigorously if confronted.
The irony here is that I also participate in this delusion daily, I too use national currencies, including the USD quite often. Although I never pay taxes in USD, certainly never receive any welfare from the US, don't care that it's "backed by guns" or an IOU, or whatever. I use them simply because there are people all around globe who believe in them.
Money is about imbuing items - some of which may be intangible - with power and manna, and also about having an irrational faith that the power and manna will increase in the future.
It's bean counting with imaginary magic beans, controlled by a priestly caste of imaginary magic bean rationers.
Crypto was an attempt to create a different kind of imaginary magic bean controlled by a different kind of rationing.
The magic part about modern currency isn't the caste of the bean rationers. It's the number of guns they have.
Money is valuable because the people with a monopoly on the legal use of violence say it's valuable.
There are many of other things that are valuable because of their utility, like a sandwich, or some kind of agreed upon cultural intrinsic value, like gold, and many of those can be even used as a medium of exchange, but those things are not money.
> Money is about imbuing items - some of which may be intangible - with power and manna
People will imbue all sorts of things with power and manna. (Video game highscores, or clothes, or the food you eat, etc. , etc.) Money is not special here.
> It's bean counting with imaginary magic beans, controlled by a priestly caste of imaginary magic bean rationers.
No. Fiat money (like the USD) are just IOU scrips from the government. No more magical or priestly than the IOU's you might give to your neighbor.
Fiat money IOU's are special only because you need them to pay taxes.
That was my very point, thank you for clarifying it. IIRC I came across it via Jan Irvin's The Pharmacratic Inquisition from 2007 [1] though I don't necessarily agree or endorse his work(s).
I saw it being referred to here [2] as well.
Perhaps its a matter of etymology. Wiktionary does not draw the link but I did find it an interesting read [3], and it did mention 'Good Friday'.
To be legally recognised it has to also exist as some paper or electronic records usually. For instance in the UK it has to be registered at companies house. If you Bob and Joe get together to do stuff and say 'lets call ourselves the Bob and Joe company' I think you'll find that legally speaking you are actually a partnership which can be iffy if Bob signs a lease in your joint names.
Yes but that’s not really news. I think the article’s elucidation is that Cryptocurrency, like money, is comprised of humans and thus has all the same baggage (as opposed to being a non-human solution that avoids issues of trust or governance).
For USD, I think the commandments would be the invariants of the monetary policy, as opposed to the entire constitution: "inflation shall average 2%", "grow the money supply to prevent deflation", and "shrink the money supply to reduce inflation". The religious part is made apparent by it being so difficult to explain why 2008 didn't lead to significant inflation - whereas inflation appears a direct result if the reasoning of these policies is accurate - yet we still follow the policy and just pray it will carry us through anyway.
All the while, the Whitehouse mysteriously glows as the nation's printing press is busy churning out a few more batches of fiat in secret.