Re:Fiat is Effective: fiat for the crypto crowd [pdf]
by moduspol on Monday October 16, 2017 @11:26AM
(#15483850)
But they had to exercise those powers, which themselves had significant political costs since they were explicitly seen and felt by the population.
Now compare that to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or Syria. The difference is clear.
Besides, cryptocurrencies have a property gold doesn't: They take up no physical space and even huge quantities can be hidden easily and/or lost forever. If your government became oppressive, you couldn't take your life's savings in gold and leave the country. They could feasibly confiscate your gold [1] in a way they can't with crypto.
They can still point guns at you, conscript you, or imprison you, but their options are lot more limited with crypto.
Re:Fiat is Effective: fiat for the crypto crowd [pdf]
by pvg on Monday October 16, 2017 @11:30AM
(#15483887)
I don't see the difference or understand what the difference is supposed to be or the rest of your argument at all, really. First you said something inaccurate about the gold standard on the basis of a comic book movie. Now you're saying what exactly?
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/roosevelts_gold...
You only need to take a look at the many other highly intrusive powers the federal government was able to exercise at the time (everything from directing economic production, resource and price control, conscripting large chunks of the population into the war effort to internment of some of its own citizens) to recognize the idea a cryptocurrency would somehow act as a check is far fetched to put it very mildly.