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Thanks for clarifying about the treasury part. I thought treasury (or the US Govt) had instructed federal reserve to freeze assets of Russian entity. > But not

Thanks for clarifying about the treasury part. I thought treasury (or the US Govt) had instructed federal reserve to freeze assets of Russian entity. > But not technically true for gold coins In so far as gold is used as money one is indeed relying on rest of humanity/society to accept it in exchange for whatever you need. Granted that for most (all?) of their existence, civilised humans have accepted gold as money because of its use as jewellery and its attractive qualities. But there's still a possibility that some tribe/community will refuse to accept gold as money as they don't have any use value of it. In my mind, money is a promise or a contract which says here's a "thing" I'll give you in exchange for goods or services. The other party could always walk away from that contract or decide to not honour that promise. Gold/cattle etc., have worked as money because they have an intrinsic use value which one could fall back to if it stops working as money. Which brings me to the next point. > ..or bitcoin. I could never understand the intrinsic use value of Bitcoin. People think of it as store of energy or whatever but what is the intrinsic use of Bitcoin? ETH at least is used as a currency to get work done on Ethereum chain so that is its intrinsic use value.

eru 4y ago
> I thought treasury (or the US Govt) had instructed federal reserve to freeze assets of Russian entity. I'd need to look that up. But I don't think Russian entities directly held assets at the federal reserve? It's mostly about the commitments of third parties? > In so far as gold is used as money one is indeed relying on rest of humanity/society to accept it in exchange for whatever you need. Hence my use of the term 'technically'. Yes, the industrial uses for gold are relatively limited. So its value is mostly (but not totally) a social construct. However imagine for a second coins made of something that has enormous industrial value but hasn't acquired any social value (yet). Eg coins made of graphene or so? (Not sure about a specific example.) In any case, there's no contractual counterpart for gold. It's an expectation, but no on in obligated to live up to that obligation. > In my mind, money is a promise or a contract which says here's a "thing" I'll give you in exchange for goods or services. The other party could always walk away from that contract or decide to not honour that promise. For proper contracts, there would be contract penalties. Eg if your bank refuses to pay out cash when asked. > I could never understand the intrinsic use value of Bitcoin. People think of it as store of energy or whatever but what is the intrinsic use of Bitcoin? ETH at least is used as a currency to get work done on Ethereum chain so that is its intrinsic use value. Network effects aren't good enough for you?

eru 4y ago

> I thought treasury (or the US Govt) had instructed federal reserve to freeze assets of Russian entity. I'd need to look that up. But I don't think Russian entities directly held assets at the federal reserve? It's mostly about the commitments of third parties? > In so far as gold is used as money one is indeed relying on rest of humanity/society to accept it in exchange for whatever you need. Hence my use of the term 'technically'. Yes, the industrial uses for gold are relatively limited. So its value is mostly (but not totally) a social construct. However imagine for a second coins made of something that has enormous industrial value but hasn't acquired any social value (yet). Eg coins made of graphene or so? (Not sure about a specific example.) In any case, there's no contractual counterpart for gold. It's an expectation, but no on in obligated to live up to that obligation. > In my mind, money is a promise or a contract which says here's a "thing" I'll give you in exchange for goods or services. The other party could always walk away from that contract or decide to not honour that promise. For proper contracts, there would be contract penalties. Eg if your bank refuses to pay out cash when asked. > I could never understand the intrinsic use value of Bitcoin. People think of it as store of energy or whatever but what is the intrinsic use of Bitcoin? ETH at least is used as a currency to get work done on Ethereum chain so that is its intrinsic use value. Network effects aren't good enough for you?