3 ms·

If Bitcoin is money, then it is absolutely fiat money and always has been. The alternatives would be that it is commodity money (which is not the case because

If Bitcoin is money, then it is absolutely fiat money and always has been. The alternatives would be that it is commodity money (which is not the case because you can't use a Bitcoin other than exchange it for something else) or representative money (which is not the case because Bitcoin isn't backed by anything else for which it can exchanged). Up to this point, it's been a rather degenerate case of fiat money because the agreement that it has value has not been governmentally backed. But now that's no longer the case. Congrats, Bitcoin, you now absolutely meet all the requirements of fiat money!

jMyles 5y ago
By whose fiat can the supply of Bitcoin be inflated? And are precious metals fiat by the standard you've laid out? Or are they commodities strictly on thin premise that you can use silver as a disinfectant, etc?
- NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
  >By whose fiat can the supply of Bitcoin be inflated? That's not what "fiat" means in this context. Fiat money is simply money that is asserted to be valuable. Control over issuance of money by those who assert the value of money is not an essential element of fiat money. For example, the US dollar is adopted as the currency of the Republic of Palau, and yet the Republic of Palau has no control over the US dollar. Does that suggest to you that, in Palau, the US dollar is not the fiat currency? >And are precious metals fiat by the standard you've laid out? Or are they commodities strictly on thin premise that you can use silver as a disinfectant, etc? Precious metals are not money; they're commodities. No-one thinks they're money. The question "are precious metals fiat?" is meaningless.
  - jMyles 5y ago
    > Fiat money is simply money that is asserted to be valuable. No. This is absolutely not the historical or academic definition of this term. From investopedia: > Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. [0] To (in the passive voice, no less) that any money which "is asserted to be valuable" is fiat money makes every object ever valued by any human into fiat money. Moreover, it manufactures consent because it takes away the crucial ability to talk about money which can be capriciously inflated vs. money which cannot. And being in the latter category is, according to Bitcoin proponents (heck, according to me), among Bitcoin's strengths. 0: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp

jMyles 5y ago

By whose fiat can the supply of Bitcoin be inflated? And are precious metals fiat by the standard you've laid out? Or are they commodities strictly on thin premise that you can use silver as a disinfectant, etc?

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
>By whose fiat can the supply of Bitcoin be inflated? That's not what "fiat" means in this context. Fiat money is simply money that is asserted to be valuable. Control over issuance of money by those who assert the value of money is not an essential element of fiat money. For example, the US dollar is adopted as the currency of the Republic of Palau, and yet the Republic of Palau has no control over the US dollar. Does that suggest to you that, in Palau, the US dollar is not the fiat currency? >And are precious metals fiat by the standard you've laid out? Or are they commodities strictly on thin premise that you can use silver as a disinfectant, etc? Precious metals are not money; they're commodities. No-one thinks they're money. The question "are precious metals fiat?" is meaningless.
- jMyles 5y ago
  > Fiat money is simply money that is asserted to be valuable. No. This is absolutely not the historical or academic definition of this term. From investopedia: > Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. [0] To (in the passive voice, no less) that any money which "is asserted to be valuable" is fiat money makes every object ever valued by any human into fiat money. Moreover, it manufactures consent because it takes away the crucial ability to talk about money which can be capriciously inflated vs. money which cannot. And being in the latter category is, according to Bitcoin proponents (heck, according to me), among Bitcoin's strengths. 0: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp