The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

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The only way to make maturity mismatching safe is with the presence of a lender of last resort standing ready to lend to banks in case of a bank run. The second challenge for Bitcoin is that it needs to grow. But eventually, Bitcoin would need to rely on centralized institutions to continue growing. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a viable way around this: the more transactions that happen, the more copies of the ledger need updating. Bitcoin is also the first example of absolute scarcity, the only liquid commodity (digital or physical) with a set fixed quantity that cannot conceivably be increased. Note: The techno-economic paradigm theory of money: Under each technological regime, a different form of money thrives. Beginning with a history of gold, Ammous looks at different types of money in history and shows how Bitcoin fits in.

Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to

Ammousovo nesporno razumevanje tehnoloških možnosti in zgodovinskih realnosti monetarnega razvoja botruje neustavljivo privlačnemu raziskovanju učinkov uporabe prostovoljnega prostotržnega denarja. Bitcoin izpodbija najbolj nedotakljiv monopol državnih oblasti in s tem posameznikom vrača njihovo neodvisnost ter nam ponuja mamljivo možnost sveta, v katerem je denar popolnoma izločen iz politike in njegov pretok ni oviran z državnimi mejami. main difference being that the monetary discipline of the gold standard was almost entirely lost in this world where there were no effective controls on all central banks in expanding the money supply, because no citizens could redeem their government money for gold. People are allowed to have ideologies, but it shows good faith to be explicit that this is what is being discussed: this is political ideology, not economic or monetary theory per se. Ammous is at least clear in affirming that “The political vision of Bitcoin” is essentially based around Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism: government should stay out of people’s lives (other than helping secure property). The book’s principle citations are from Rothbard and his fellow travellers, von Mises and Hayek (with some reference to other libertarian thought and modern Austrian school writers such as Salerno and Hoppe). The middle section of the book is von Mises and Rothbard on steroids. It has a feeling of lecture notes stitched together without the benefit of a serious editor: almost plagiaristic in parts, dumbed down for mass-market appeal in others, always displaying a touch of venom. One of the interesting side effects of the rise of Bitcoin is that suddenly a lot of people are interested in Austrian economics.While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse.

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to

Ammous describes what BTC has become in its promoters’ eyes: “a global hard money” to store financial wealth, which third party intermediaries can hold and trade on their platforms, much like banks do now. Noting the incongruity, he writes, “While this view of Bitcoin might sound like it is a betrayal of Bitcoin’s original vision[correct, emphasis added] of fully peer-to-peer cash, it is not a new vision.” The digital-gold-as-universal-money idea had indeed been around for over a decade before the white paper. But this had little (if anything) to do with Satoshi’s white paper, and was not the problem Satoshi was trying to solve: ‘casual’ transactions (read small and uneconomic for banks) settling with electronic cash without the need for a fiduciary intermediary.Although gold was supposedly demonetized fully in 1971, central banks continued to hold significant gold reserves, and only disposed of them slowly, before returning to buying gold in the last decade. Note: Argument is that this monetary nationalism administered by central banks created more upside as well as more downside. In an asymmetric world, AKA Extemistan, that is not worth it. Governments have control over money, meaning they have control over you. Bitcoin offers freedom from control and inflation. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins (there are smaller denominations)--not like US dollars where the continual printing of more and more tends to devalue your money.

Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to

In an economy with no recognized medium of exchange, each good will have to be priced in terms of each other good, leading to a large number of prices, making economic calculations exceedingly difficult. Someone who knows the history of the Great Depression and Bretton Woods era may well recognise the characterisation of this era as a fairy tale. Stylistically, it’s essentially an extended, but bad, undergraduate essay: ranting and polemical. At its low points it’s moronic. Everything Ammous doesn’t like about the period is lumped into the devil incarnate, ‘Keynesian economics’, presented as one homogenous, sub-intellectual blob of stupid ideas, driven by the vanity of self-serving bureaucrats and academics. Any subtlety about the notion of good or bad political governance is simply a manifestation of the ‘Keynesian deluge’. The fact that many high-profile followers of Keynes actively refer to this ‘Keynesian Economics’ as ‘Bastard Keynesianism’—for more nuanced reasons—completely escapes Ammous.Libertarian or "Austrian economics" explanation of money. Discussing the history and social impact then anticipating the role of bitcoin. Keynes expresses his opposition of liberalism and individualism, which one would expect, but also presents the grounds of his opposition to socialism […] that its end goal was increasing individual freedom […] Keynes wanted government enslavement for its own sake, as the ultimate end.

Everything you need to know about the Bitcoin Standard - Luno Everything you need to know about the Bitcoin Standard - Luno

Risk Management - Apply Antifragility to make Entrepreneurship the Safest 21st Century Career and Surround yourself with a community that will foster success Note: You need a single or few monies to allow specialization. This is part of memetic fitness. The people who adopt a money which facilitates greater specialization will outcompete those who don’t. See Lydia.money that is easy to produce is no money at all, and easy money does not make a society richer; on the contrary, it makes it poorer by placing all its hard‐earned wealth for sale in exchange for something easy to produce. In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous offers a take on why Bitcoin is the best version of what Austrians call “sound money” and why he believes that makes it the only cryptocurrency worth paying attention to. money whose supply is hard to increase is known as hard money, while easy money is money whose supply is amenable to large increases. Note: The argument for inflation is that it incentivizes investment rather than hoarding which may overcome some loss aversion.