"There're ample historical counterexamples of currencies that are not tied to a government. Gold is the most obvious example" ...governments were accepting gol

"There're ample historical counterexamples of currencies that are not tied to a government. Gold is the most obvious example" ...governments were accepting gold for tax purposes, kings were filling their treasuries with gold, armies were sent to steal gold from other countries, etc. Gold was absolutely tied to government when it was used as currency, and I am using the past tense here because gold is not a currency outside of a few highly niche markets. "What really makes a currency is confidence" I think you are confusing confidence with demand. What makes currencies work is demand -- the fact that everyone in the market demands the currency. Typically this happens because of a government, or more precisely because of a government that enforces certain laws. "so can strong crypto" Oh yeah? Let's just assume that Bitcoin actually qualified as "strong crypto." I'll release my fork of Bitcoin that is identical in every way, but happens to have its own block chain that I started using this post. How successful do you think that will be as a currency? Why can't we all just create our own personal block chains (and thus all be rich)? There is more to the story than "strong crypto."