This is like saying “national currencies are all a big scam” because pyramid schemes generally use currency. There are a lot of crypto scams, but that doesn’t mean the tech is a scam, just that it’s a relatively easy avenue to create scams with.
The FBI can also track physical currency through serial numbers, credit/debit transactions through cooperation w/ banks, etc, but that doesn’t make national currencies a scam…
That’s a bit of a rabbit hole, but I think the main argument here is that fiat currency is a bit of a scam since it can be inflated at will to erode value. But in practice, it’s pretty predictable in most parts of the world.
A scam is when you get something different than was advertised. National currencies are usually pretty clear about how they’re managed, and cryptocurrencies are generally completely transparent. If anything, cryptocurrencies are less of a scam than fiat currencies, though cryptocurencies probably have more scams since they’re relatively new and understanding of how they work isn’t as widespread as it should be given how much they’re traded.
Like the Chinese have been fixing the value of their currency to the dollar, and the federal reserve does exactly that thing where they inflate it at will. Or keep it at zero, and the rest of the corporations inflate it nowadays. Whichever.
Either way, it’s a scam. And I’m not saying the gold standard was a great idea either. It worked at the time, i guess? I don’t know, I wasn’t there. This fiat currency situation seems possibly workable, but I haven’t seen it doing so. At least not for anyone who isn’t already in the club.
The value of money is all made up bullshit anyway, can we at least get some healthcare out of it? Maybe some roofs? Food?
I like my friends not starving or freezing to death.
Not always, the USD was on the gold standard 100 years ago. These days, most (all?) are fiat, but I separate the idea of fiat from national currency because they’re technically separate concepts. You can be against fiat but not against national currencies or vice versa.
The value of money is all made up
It’s really not, it’s a very complex system and would remain complex regardless of what monetary system we use. Fiat currencies, for example, are managed by central banks to maintain a predictable amount of inflation, but that’s going to be an average, and different sectors of the economy inflate at different rates (e.g. housing has been inflating faster than food recently).
Even if we completely eliminate the concept of money (not happening), the complexities of large scale distribution of resources would still remain.
That said, modern fiat currencies do a pretty good job of distilling that complexity down to a common form of exchange. You work for some amount of money, you exchange that money for some goods, and the person providing those goods exchanges it for yet more goods. That prices tend to stay reasonably stable the vast majority of the time is honestly pretty amazing IMO. And people starving or freezing to death is incredibly rare in most parts of the world, especially when the fiat systems are largely kept out of the hands of politicians.
My personal preference is more competition in the currency space, so I want to see actual uses of cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and even gold-back currencies. In today’s age, it’s pretty easy to manage that complexity, and having some competition should keep each of those currencies honest, because people can always vote with their feet and their wallet.
This is like saying “national currencies are all a big scam” because pyramid schemes generally use currency. There are a lot of crypto scams, but that doesn’t mean the tech is a scam, just that it’s a relatively easy avenue to create scams with.
The FBI can also track physical currency through serial numbers, credit/debit transactions through cooperation w/ banks, etc, but that doesn’t make national currencies a scam…
Eh, I’ll say it.
National currencies are a scam. No pyramid needes
That’s a bit of a rabbit hole, but I think the main argument here is that fiat currency is a bit of a scam since it can be inflated at will to erode value. But in practice, it’s pretty predictable in most parts of the world.
A scam is when you get something different than was advertised. National currencies are usually pretty clear about how they’re managed, and cryptocurrencies are generally completely transparent. If anything, cryptocurrencies are less of a scam than fiat currencies, though cryptocurencies probably have more scams since they’re relatively new and understanding of how they work isn’t as widespread as it should be given how much they’re traded.
National currencies ARE fiat currencies.
Like the Chinese have been fixing the value of their currency to the dollar, and the federal reserve does exactly that thing where they inflate it at will. Or keep it at zero, and the rest of the corporations inflate it nowadays. Whichever.
Either way, it’s a scam. And I’m not saying the gold standard was a great idea either. It worked at the time, i guess? I don’t know, I wasn’t there. This fiat currency situation seems possibly workable, but I haven’t seen it doing so. At least not for anyone who isn’t already in the club.
The value of money is all made up bullshit anyway, can we at least get some healthcare out of it? Maybe some roofs? Food?
I like my friends not starving or freezing to death.
Not always, the USD was on the gold standard 100 years ago. These days, most (all?) are fiat, but I separate the idea of fiat from national currency because they’re technically separate concepts. You can be against fiat but not against national currencies or vice versa.
It’s really not, it’s a very complex system and would remain complex regardless of what monetary system we use. Fiat currencies, for example, are managed by central banks to maintain a predictable amount of inflation, but that’s going to be an average, and different sectors of the economy inflate at different rates (e.g. housing has been inflating faster than food recently).
Even if we completely eliminate the concept of money (not happening), the complexities of large scale distribution of resources would still remain.
That said, modern fiat currencies do a pretty good job of distilling that complexity down to a common form of exchange. You work for some amount of money, you exchange that money for some goods, and the person providing those goods exchanges it for yet more goods. That prices tend to stay reasonably stable the vast majority of the time is honestly pretty amazing IMO. And people starving or freezing to death is incredibly rare in most parts of the world, especially when the fiat systems are largely kept out of the hands of politicians.
My personal preference is more competition in the currency space, so I want to see actual uses of cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and even gold-back currencies. In today’s age, it’s pretty easy to manage that complexity, and having some competition should keep each of those currencies honest, because people can always vote with their feet and their wallet.