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There is a difference between inflation and hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is not too much money or not enough money to spend. Hyperinflation is a loss of confidence in the currency (ie, people immediately exchange the currency for something real). Money’s component as a store of value is what prevents inflationary episodes from happening. Imagine, if everyone believed that whatever cash that they hold would lose 50% of purchasing power by the end of the year, they would more than likely go ahead and spend it now instead of when 50% of the value is lost. That's the nature of hyperinflation.

The other component necessary for hyperinflation is a competing currency. In Zimbabwe the locals switched to dollars when their native gov’t currency failed.

From the article: Most of the gold generated by the ruthlessly productive, rapidly adapting bots found its way to third party vendors in a black market which undercut the prices in the sanctioned, in-game auction houses.



You do not really need a competing currency as anything can be a store of value eg cigarettes or cars that is not the currency. But dollars are widely available globally and plenty fit in a planeload of $100 bills. I was in Brazil when they had around 40% a month inflation and you could buy dollars on any street corner and the black market rate was broadcast every day on the TV news.


I remember Zimbabwe when it was at its worst. The inflation was 30% - per hour. And the queues to the ATMs were loong.




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