4 ms·

There is something missing in this story, which is the unified Houthi resolve to not accept post-2016 bank notes. And that resolve is not without cost - one exa

There is something missing in this story, which is the unified Houthi resolve to not accept post-2016 bank notes. And that resolve is not without cost - one example being the awareness campaign around serial numbers, and I'm sure there are many others. Without that resolve, the money is "fungible" again. If the same thing were to be tried in the US, you'd have to have everyone in a given region (say, Florida) agree that only pre-2022 dollars would be accepted, or else it wouldn't work - all the money would still be fungible. And they'd have to have a reason to do that. The widespread availability of inter-regional ecommerce makes it even more complicated, because what would really stop a Floridian from taking advantage of that? What are you going to do, stop trucks at the Florida border and make them show proof that the bill of sale was paid in pre-2022 dollars? Also, obviously, only works in a cash-based society. There are no serial numbers on the dollars in your checking account.

aeternum 5y ago
Even a subset of merchants is enough to produce an effect. I've been to a few countries in which many merchants will accept USD but only notes in good condition as the banks give them a hard time if the bills are torn or marked up. Some merchants would trade the marked up/torn USD at a discount to face value while others would simply refuse to accept those bills. The interesting thing was how quickly I too considered the torn bills less valuable even though I could easily take them back to the US where they were completely fungible.
- notch656a 5y ago
  Sounds like a good opportunity for someone to buy up bills from these money changers at a discount and then perform some international arbitrage.
  - notahacker 5y ago
    Even as someone who once got asked to name my own exchange rate if I could swap rupees for some British currency the local kids had begged for their "coin collection", I don't think there's much profit in moving damaged banknotes from Myanmar to the US (or even Cambodia)! Damaged dollars naturally find their way into the hands of tourists who won't have difficulty spending or exchanging them when they leave the country
    - notch656a 5y ago
      Make sense. My anecdotal experience in third world money changing is the banks are most strict. The gray-market exchangers are a little more liberal and then private to private transaction is the most liberal. Paraguayan banks straight up refuse to take certain year of $100 notes because they were burned by some forger years ago, so they just black-list entire series of notes no matter how crisp and authentic they are.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    I think one of the steps in that arbitrage would require carrying suitcases full of cash over a border, which may not be so easy. Small-scale "I'll take that filthy $5 for change rather than those three pristine $1s" seems like what's probably actually happening.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Switzerland banks and merchants have refused several of my US bills that were in quite good (but still imperfect) condition.
onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
The example in Florida is hard to imagine. Most spending is credit. How could that possibly be enforced in a credit-based economy?
twic 5y ago
> Also, obviously, only works in a cash-based society. There are no serial numbers on the dollars in your checking account. You could do it with bitcoin, though!
- hyperhopper 5y ago
  Not with normal Bitcoin, normal btc is fungible.
  - notch656a 5y ago
    You're going to get a nasty dose of truth about the fungibility of BTC if you end up with tainted BTC and try to cash them out on an exchange. There are some crypto that are practically fungible (although technically not). Look into privacy coins.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    The bitcoin protocol seems to go out of its way to ensure that's not true. Bitcoin balances can never be consolidated - you don't pay bitcoin out of a wallet with fungible coins in it; you pay bitcoin out of a globally-unique transaction pointed at the wallet.

aeternum 5y ago

Even a subset of merchants is enough to produce an effect. I've been to a few countries in which many merchants will accept USD but only notes in good condition as the banks give them a hard time if the bills are torn or marked up. Some merchants would trade the marked up/torn USD at a discount to face value while others would simply refuse to accept those bills. The interesting thing was how quickly I too considered the torn bills less valuable even though I could easily take them back to the US where they were completely fungible.

notch656a 5y ago
Sounds like a good opportunity for someone to buy up bills from these money changers at a discount and then perform some international arbitrage.
- notahacker 5y ago
  Even as someone who once got asked to name my own exchange rate if I could swap rupees for some British currency the local kids had begged for their "coin collection", I don't think there's much profit in moving damaged banknotes from Myanmar to the US (or even Cambodia)! Damaged dollars naturally find their way into the hands of tourists who won't have difficulty spending or exchanging them when they leave the country
  - notch656a 5y ago
    Make sense. My anecdotal experience in third world money changing is the banks are most strict. The gray-market exchangers are a little more liberal and then private to private transaction is the most liberal. Paraguayan banks straight up refuse to take certain year of $100 notes because they were burned by some forger years ago, so they just black-list entire series of notes no matter how crisp and authentic they are.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- pessimizer 5y ago
  I think one of the steps in that arbitrage would require carrying suitcases full of cash over a border, which may not be so easy. Small-scale "I'll take that filthy $5 for change rather than those three pristine $1s" seems like what's probably actually happening.
sokoloff 5y ago
Switzerland banks and merchants have refused several of my US bills that were in quite good (but still imperfect) condition.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago

The example in Florida is hard to imagine. Most spending is credit. How could that possibly be enforced in a credit-based economy?

twic 5y ago

> Also, obviously, only works in a cash-based society. There are no serial numbers on the dollars in your checking account. You could do it with bitcoin, though!

hyperhopper 5y ago
Not with normal Bitcoin, normal btc is fungible.
- notch656a 5y ago
  You're going to get a nasty dose of truth about the fungibility of BTC if you end up with tainted BTC and try to cash them out on an exchange. There are some crypto that are practically fungible (although technically not). Look into privacy coins.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  The bitcoin protocol seems to go out of its way to ensure that's not true. Bitcoin balances can never be consolidated - you don't pay bitcoin out of a wallet with fungible coins in it; you pay bitcoin out of a globally-unique transaction pointed at the wallet.