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He might be an economist, but he doesn't know anything about monetary history: The economic assumptions underpinning the Bitcoin ecosystem are laughable, and i
by pietro 15y ago
He might be an economist, but he doesn't know anything about monetary history:
The economic assumptions underpinning the Bitcoin ecosystem are laughable, and ignore hundreds of years of accumulated understanding of how currencies work with each other.
Paper money is about 100 years old. That's it.
- glenngillen 15y agoBy "paper money" do you (and the article's author) actually mean "fiat money" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money) dating back 11th century China? It was in use as early as 18th century America. The only thing about "paper money" that I can think of that is about 100 years old is the beginning of the departure from the gold standard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard).
- wladimir 15y agoAnd of course the older things are the better they are. For example, we all now 1000 year old medical practices are good and effective whereas recently developed ones suck. ... why would it be true for economic practices? Some experimentation is good, without it there would never be any progress at all. Appeal to authority based on the age of ideas is something you can only get away with in religion, astrology, and it seems, economic 'science'. Sure, there is a large chance that new ideas might fail but you can't simply argue against them because they go against old ideas.
- liedra 15y agoI was at the Bank of England museum checking out the first "notes" the other day, and they date back to 1694. That's a little older than 100 years.