[scotty79]

> According to chartal theory, the requirement that people pay taxes with government-issued bits of paper is what drives the positive value of these bits.

This is an actual theory? I thought it was just something people made up for the purpose of "proving" that bitcoin is worthless in internet discussions. It just sounds so silly.

[munk-a]

It is a theory, but it's a pretty silly one. Most discussions of Chartalism usually end up being excuses for colonialism.

There is a lot wrong with colonization - one of those things is that subsistence farming/ranching/being alive isn't really profitable to anyone else, so requiring that taxes be paid in a currency that is rewarded for doing a job that the government wants done is a way to force people to do that job in a sneaky way that doesn't technically count as slavery.

This was used extensively by GB in South Africa[1] to make sure there was enough labour to run mining operations.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut_tax though this wikipedia article is incredibly whitewashed.