> I broadly agree with the author on Bitcoin, but I do not agree on what was said about the gold standard being bad. The gold standard is/was bad. It could hel

> I broadly agree with the author on Bitcoin, but I do not agree on what was said about the gold standard being bad. The gold standard is/was bad. It could help turn economic downturns in things like the Great Depression: * https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/financial-markets-and-financial-crises/gold-standard-deflation-and-financial-crisis-great-depression-international-comparison https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/financial-markets-an... And it does little/nothing to help economic stability, as measured by things like the CPI: * https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... * https://archive.md/FWKcL https://archive.md/FWKcL And when it's not doing much for stability, shortages can actually stunt economic growth: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine Further, adherence to the gold standard also tends to lend itself to austerity which leads to economic suffering (e.g., deflation) which has often people to more extreme politics: * https://www.nber.org/papers/w24106 https://www.nber.org/papers/w24106 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity:_The_History_of_a_Dangerous_Idea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity:_The_History_of_a_Da... For all of its problems, the current credit-based monetary system is better than past systems. For a (popular) history of money through the ages: * https://bookshop.org/books/money-the-true-story-of-a-made-up-thing/9780316417198 https://bookshop.org/books/money-the-true-story-of-a-made-up...