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I prefer to start from the assumption that money doesn't exist. Rather Moneyness is a property that various tangible and intangible items have to varying degrees. Moneyness is conferred by: rarity, usefulness, desirability, portability, fungibility. Gold is rare, desirable (it's pretty!), reasonably useful in limited contexts, perfectly fungible, and easily portable due to its density. On this scale, Gold has a high degree of Moneyness and so people often say that "gold is money", and it has served as both exchange currency and store of value for millenia. In contrast, cigarettes are useful, desirable, and fungible but not rare. Thus they form a poor medium of exchange or store of value. Unless you happen to be in a prison, where cigarettes are more difficult to acquire, and thus have increased Moneyness and can form the basis of a currency system. With this background it's easy to see that digital US dollars possess the same amount of Moneyness as credit. Credit spends like dollars. Digital accounts spend like paper bills. If the context changes, then the relative value changes. Is the network down? Suddenly your credit card has reduced ability to act as a medium of exchange. The digital currency has reduced Moneyness. "Sorry, cash only", etc. This is a long-winded way of discouraging you from trying to compare anything to "real money". There is no real money. There are only various objects and societal agreements that have greater or lesser degrees of Moneyness at this particular location and time in history. |