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Summary of key points: • The case against fiat is an ethical case, much more than an effectiveness case. Crytpo advocates often misunderstand this. * The prim
by jph 9y ago
Summary of key points:
• The case against fiat is an ethical case, much more than an effectiveness case. Crytpo advocates often misunderstand this.
* The primary reason fiat succeeds is it offers price stability. But stability is often purchased at the expense of workers and the unemployed.
* The management of fiat provides state actors with incredibly powerful, ultimately discretionary, tools which significantly affect who wins and who loses and how equal or unequal a society is.
(Edit 1: Based on the presentation's concluding "summary" slides. Edit 2: Removed the point about war as less germane.)
- pjc50 9y ago"Fiat money and associated banking systems are the technology that enables the finance of war on scales that would have been unimaginable a few centuries ago" This quote appears in the summary but isn't really supported by argument within the article, and is quite a big claim!
- littlestymaar 9y agoSee how every big countries got rid of the gold standard during World War 1.
- subroutine 9y agoWhat of countries that go full crypto, then later have a war levied against them; this suggests these governments would not have effective economic means to defend themselves. Its almost like it assumes if citicens of a state switch to crypto their government would/could not tax them
- lucozade 9y ago> this suggests these governments would not have effective economic means to defend themselves They'll just re-introduce a fiat currency like they did all the other times that this was a problem. Assuming they want to survive. Historically, communities that favoured philosophical consistency over self preservation tended to become, well, historical.
- iosDrone 9y agoI don't think this is a good summary of the article at all. It's mostly about why fiat currency is so entrenched, and why a lot of the things that cryptocurrencies advocates cite as weaknesses are actually strengths.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- notyourday 9y ago> The primary reason fiat succeeds is it offers price stability. But stability is often purchased at the expense of workers and the unemployed. Fiat is successful because it is backed up by guys with lots of guns. The backers of the most successful ones have aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, predator drones, etc.