• NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    That’s how all currencies work. The value is whatever we believe the value is. You could make the currency paper sacks and that would still be true.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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      15 days ago

      While you have a point, paper sacks would be a bad currency because it’s decently easy to create more paper sacks and therefore inflation would run rampant quite quickly. This is why things that used to be considered money are no longer money such as seashells, glass beads, etc. It turns out they were too easy to make and inflation ran rampant until they found a harder currency.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        15 days ago

        Those things were used either because they had inherent value (gold, seashells, gems) or they were just hard enough to make for the average person (glass beads, coinage).

      • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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        15 days ago

        Paper sacks have a natural limit to being made just like everything else. Eventually you reach market stability, paper sacks are also not durable, so there would be some churn in the supply.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      No, it’s not.

      The US Dollar is a fiat currency. The value is merely what the market dictates amongst trading frequency and how much debt is held in it.

      It’s backed by nothing. A dollar has a made up value. In the1970s Nixon ended the US gold Standard, and those with property, not the government who held the gold, got to dictate it. Same thing through today.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        15 days ago

        The US dollar is backed up by you have to pay your taxes in US dollar so the US economy is going to accept US dollar, thus, if you have dollars, you can buy shit in the US. In effect, thus, the US dollar is backed by the US economy.

        There’s no such mechanism for crypto coins. If you now say “well the Fed can just print money”, that’s US policy. The Euro works differently, there price stability reigns supreme, in any case the policies of both Fed and ECB are well-known and people trust that they don’t change willy-nilly because neither the US nor the EU has any interest in the fallout that would cause. That trust is in no way weaker, less of a guarantee, wrt. giving a hint at the future value of the currency as the collective faith that props up crypto coins as a unit of account.

        And gold, btw, is practically useless as a commodity. Jewelry? Literally only used for that because it’s expensive. Technical applications? Do exist, but the amount needed is negligible. The value of gold relies on the existence of a luxury market.

    • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      National currencies are backed by people’s vested interest in the continued stability of the nation.

      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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        15 days ago

        National currencies are backed by the fear of people who have given themselves arbitrary titles that they agree allows them to point guns at you without being prosecuted for that.