{"id":28311,"date":"2014-08-05T09:25:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T09:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe65d0072697"},"modified":"2014-08-05T09:25:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T09:25:40","slug":"arrogance-dollars-1407230740","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/arrogance-dollars-1407230740","title":{"rendered":"The Arrogance of Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One sentence perfectly summarizes the problems with modern finance, and you can find it in your pocket. Open up your wallet and take out a US bill of any denomination. On its front, you\u2019ll find these words:<\/p>\n

\u201cTHIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE\u201d<\/p>\n

This simple sentence encapsulates Old-World finance, where central bankers make intimidating commandments, and governments try to manage commerce from a central point. Contrast this with bitcoin, which represents New-World finance. Several points:<\/p>\n

1. There\u2019s a reason why fiat currency needs special clauses. Never in history has a fiat currency maintained its value over time. Whoever controls the printing press has always inflated the money supply. Thus, fiat money, our dollar, comes with intimidating commandments: \u201cYou must accept this paper as money \u2013 or else!\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Bitcoin needs no special commandment. Nobody is forced to use it; nobody controls the printing press. If it came with a declaration, it would read: \u201cThis bitcoin is completely worthless unless you choose to value it.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Consider the extraordinary hubris of central planners. Some distant, far away bankers declare that their special currency will be legal tender for all debts, public and private<\/em>. Excuse me? Who do these people think they are? Imagine a regular person demanded you accept whatever currency he created, just because he said so. You\u2019d probably think he was deluded.<\/p>\n

4. Bitcoin proves that money doesn\u2019t require government decree. Good economists understand that money emerges from a free market. It doesn\u2019t depend on some authoritative declaration or mystical process. A growing number of individuals choose to trade with each other using something they find valuable. It\u2019s no more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

The new emerging financial system has no room for lofty commandments, and we mustn\u2019t tolerate attempts to force people into one particular way of doing commerce. Believe it or not, people can figure out by themselves what currency they want to use. (Usually, they don\u2019t want to use junk.)<\/p>\n

We can expect the old, failing financial system to get even worse \u2013 historically, the closer a currency edges to collapse, the stricter the financial controls become. Be prepared for a flurry of new laws, rules, regulations, and threats regarding your freedom to use money.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, bitcoin presents an opportunity to break free from this coercive system and its inflationary, fiat currency. No matter how hard they try, governments and central banks can\u2019t create bitcoin out of thin air, and no matter how many laws they write, it\u2019s going to be difficult to prevent people from using it. I only hope bitcoin will be able to withstand the onslaught from all the arrogant rule-makers attempting to control a new financial world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One sentence perfectly summarizes the problems with modern finance, and you can find it in your pocket. Open up your wallet and take out a US bill of any denomination. On its front, you\u2019ll find these words: \u201cTHIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE\u201d This simple sentence encapsulates Old-World finance, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3590,"featured_media":28310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1156,1560,2362,492],"class_list":{"0":"post-28311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-austrian-economics","9":"tag-cypherpunks","10":"tag-people","11":"tag-united-states"},"author_data":{"id":3590,"name":"Steve Patterson","nicename":"steve-patterson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/steve-patterson-promo-image-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/the-arrogance-of-dollars.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}