[HN Gopher] The philosophy of Bitcoin and the question of money
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       The philosophy of Bitcoin and the question of money
        
       Author : Mo3
       Score  : 14 points
       Date   : 2022-05-22 17:13 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (journals.sagepub.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (journals.sagepub.com)
        
       | ephbit wrote:
       | Abstract
       | 
       | > Money has been a polarising and unresolved socio-economic issue
       | for more than 300 years. In this article, we explore how the
       | state became increasingly involved in money and, through the
       | words of prominent monetary theorists, identify the problem of
       | the state in money. We analyse Bitcoin to see if it is a solution
       | to this problem but move on to contend that the political
       | dimension needs to be the focus of theory in the 21st century and
       | that control of the supply of money, and the power that it gives,
       | is the root of contention.
        
       | nathias wrote:
       | Debasing currency is profitable, profit gives you power, very
       | little states in history resisted this 'free' extra power because
       | it's costs can be paid in the future and by other people. Bitcoin
       | way to fix this problem of money is to try and make it impossible
       | to make more of it, which will perhaps work, but perhaps not, and
       | if it does comes with a set of its own problems.
       | 
       | I think we have to understand money as a technology and the
       | specific problems it solved when we invented it and how they
       | transformed, and think representative currencies are the best
       | solution to the essential problem of money - debt. Commodity
       | money as it was belongs to history, but crypto can invent a
       | better form of it.
        
         | Proven wrote:
        
         | qgin wrote:
         | Debasing currency "just a bit" is arguably a positive thing. A
         | steady trickle of predictable low inflation encourages the use
         | cash and taking on debt for investment in future growth.
         | 
         | A little deflation is fun for those who hold cash, but it
         | discourages taking on debt to invest in growth and at higher
         | levels, it discourages spending cash at all (ex. the yearly
         | mockery of the guy who used Bitcoin to buy that pizza back in
         | the day). You end up with a deflationary spiral where money is
         | too valuable to ever spend, causing the economy to grind to a
         | halt.
        
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