3 ms·

> Currencies have their value because of the law Fiat currencies have value because their issuing institution has a local monopoly on violence. Your phrasing i

by smokeyj 13y ago

> Currencies have their value because of the law Fiat currencies have value because their issuing institution has a local monopoly on violence. Your phrasing is much more palatable. > Control of currency is important to governments in the same way that control of speed is important to someone driving a car. Citizens are cars to be carefully driven by central bankers? How delightful! > The control is inherent and the issue is really about not completely screwing things up. The average age of fiat currency is about 27 years old. I don't understand where your warm tingling sensation is coming from.

betterunix 13y ago
"Fiat currencies have value because their issuing institution has a local monopoly on violence. Your phrasing is much more palatable." It does not have to be violence, you know. It can be non-violent -- like a general agreement by everyone that they will abide by the rulings of courts, even when those rulings work against their personal interests. Most debt disputes are resolved peacefully, even when people are watching their cars being towed away and even when they need to leave their homes. Even here in the USA, where the police are soldiers and more people are in prison than anywhere else, the majority of legal disputes are resolved peacefully and the majority of people at least try to follow the law. It is also false to claim that non-fiat currencies are not subject to this. A currency backed by, say, gold, is still a currency whose value arises because of the law -- a law that connects the paper money to gold in some way, and that requires some form of mandatory payments in that currency. If the US government decided to return to the gold standard, gold would be currency again -- whereas right now it is nearly impossible to trade gold for anything, even on the black market. So yes, the government does and will always have tremendous power over currency. Currency and law are inseparable except on the smallest scales.
anologwintermut 13y ago
Fiat currencies have their value because people agreed on that they have value. Bitcoin is more of a fiat currency than it is anything else. I.e. it has no value but for the consensus of people saying it has value and is not directly redeemable for anything that does value. Unlike, cows, iron,copper,gold, or promissory notes for them, which are the usual non fiat currencies. The fact that it doesn't depend on violence ought to tell you to stop blindly parroting every single libertarian catch phrase you hear. They are not all true.
- smokeyj 13y ago
  Fiat currency typically means money declared by a government to be legal tender. You can argue the value of bitcoin is arbitrary, but that doesn't make it a fiat currency. Way to slam dunk a straw man.

by smokeyj 13y ago

betterunix 13y ago

"Fiat currencies have value because their issuing institution has a local monopoly on violence. Your phrasing is much more palatable." It does not have to be violence, you know. It can be non-violent -- like a general agreement by everyone that they will abide by the rulings of courts, even when those rulings work against their personal interests. Most debt disputes are resolved peacefully, even when people are watching their cars being towed away and even when they need to leave their homes. Even here in the USA, where the police are soldiers and more people are in prison than anywhere else, the majority of legal disputes are resolved peacefully and the majority of people at least try to follow the law. It is also false to claim that non-fiat currencies are not subject to this. A currency backed by, say, gold, is still a currency whose value arises because of the law -- a law that connects the paper money to gold in some way, and that requires some form of mandatory payments in that currency. If the US government decided to return to the gold standard, gold would be currency again -- whereas right now it is nearly impossible to trade gold for anything, even on the black market. So yes, the government does and will always have tremendous power over currency. Currency and law are inseparable except on the smallest scales.

anologwintermut 13y ago

Fiat currencies have their value because people agreed on that they have value. Bitcoin is more of a fiat currency than it is anything else. I.e. it has no value but for the consensus of people saying it has value and is not directly redeemable for anything that does value. Unlike, cows, iron,copper,gold, or promissory notes for them, which are the usual non fiat currencies. The fact that it doesn't depend on violence ought to tell you to stop blindly parroting every single libertarian catch phrase you hear. They are not all true.

smokeyj 13y ago
Fiat currency typically means money declared by a government to be legal tender. You can argue the value of bitcoin is arbitrary, but that doesn't make it a fiat currency. Way to slam dunk a straw man.