TD₿: Bitcoin, Fiat, and War (a thread) by Saifedean Ammous
TL;DR Bitcoin may consume electricity, but if it prevents war, then it may be the best bargain that humanity has ever received.
Hey Bitcoiners,
People often forget that the fiat currencies really came into existence during WWI when governments left the gold standard in order to continue financing the war.
Hard money, like gold and Bitcoin, constrains governments’ ability to spend money because they can’t make any more of it. Thus, under a hard money standard, a war would simply end when one government runs out of funds to pay for it.
In an era of easy money, this is not the case. Money can be created out of thin air with no cost, and as such, it’s easier for governments to continue to finance endless wars at the cost of bloodshed and lives.
Author Saifedean Ammous delves into this idea in this Twitter thread where he uses the recent US war in Iraq as an example (02/17/2019).
Bitcoin offers a new form of hard money that could constrain governments’ ability to go to war while also improving upon some of gold’s limitations.
Perhaps one day Satoshi Nakamoto will win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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Quote of the Day
“The Bitcoin protocol not only represents a candidate solution to perfect property, it also doubles as a candidate social consensus protocol that obsoletes war by serving as its functional surrogate.” - Jason Lowery, US Space Force and National Defense Fellow at MIT
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Cory, amazing work. Glad to be a subscriber. Thanks!