By author Morgan Jassen on w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶s̶i̶l̶v̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶



2020-12-29 16:19

On Currency and Paper Money and Digital Money -- And Currency with Intrinsic Value

This blog post is about a feeling of empowerment.

This blog post is about moving away from currency that has intrinsic value, and then moving back to currency with intrinsic value.

America moved from a gold standard, to using certificates/notes are the standard. Paper money where it doesn't have intrinsic value but instead just has the money people agree that it has.

Today we've also already somewhat moved away from paper cerfificates -- now we often don't even need physical certificates -- because now additionally have direct deposits, bank transfers, credit cards, and debit cards.

Plus the government I believe does something we may loosely call "prints money" but that we may as well call adds-credit-to-its-member-banks'-deposits and if I understand this is a digital process. I believe the Federal reserve bank decides to either/or create money by creating credit, or create money by creating paper money (federal reserve notes)

In short, that is how we've moved away from intrinsic value standard.

But how about the other way?  What and how may we move back to currency that is based in an intrinsic value? 

I get to imagining. What has intrinsic value, and lasts a long time, so that it may even remotely be considered as a form of currency like this?  How about these:
- bottles of rum
- Bottles of wine
- Bottles of whiskey/scotch
- containers of Dried Beans
- bags of dried rice
- Gold coins (of course)
- Silver (of course)
- Bundles of dried tea leaves (100ct. bundles of tea that are the size of a person, and 10ct. bundles of tea, and 4ct. bundles, and 1ct. bundles!)
- Ok and basically especially anything that *gains* value over time like say ginseng (or scotch, or some dried teas, or some wines)
- Ok, and books. E.g. copies of famous useful books that carry a proven value (Such as classics, best-sellers, or reference books with time-proven wisdom.)

It's just empowering to think of the power of say carrying around a 750ml. bottle of rum, and using it (instead of a $10 or $20 dollar bill) to buy things. 
(Or to accept a bottle of wine as a payment for some goods and services that I'm providing (with the intent of using that bottle again as currency myself in the future as needed.))

In conclusion, it's empowering.



This blog post first published at https://w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶s̶i̶l̶v̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2020/blog/
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