Money, Ledgers, & Bitcoin

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Fiat Currency

  • Social & Economic Consensus.
  • Represented by Central Bank Liabilities & Commercial Bank Deposits.
  • Relies upon System of Ledgers Integrated into a Fractional Banking System.
  • Accepted for Taxes.
  • Notes & Coins are legal tenders for all debts public & private.
  • Unique tax treatment

The Role of Money

  • Medium of exchange
  • Store of Value
  • Unit of Account

Characteristics of money

  • Durable
  • Portable
  • Divisible
  • Uniform/Fungible

Why Early Cryptographic Digital Currencies Failed?

  • Rely on some form of central authority.
  • Not enough adoption.
  • Couldn’t solve the double-spend problem.
  • Merchant adoption
  • Centralization
  • Double spending
  • Consensus

Main riddle is “How to move value peer-to-peer without any trusted central intermediary“