[distortedsignal]

Currency - money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money) - usually has three "primary roles":

1. Unit of Account (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_account)

2. Store of Value (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_of_value)

3. Medium of Exchange (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_of_exchange)

So think about a couple examples of these:

Goats would be terrible money. A unit of account that is "goats" would be subject to birth- and death-rates.

Sports game tickets would be terrible money - they're significantly more valuable before the game, and after the game, they're far less valuable.

Mountains would be terrible money. How could you exchange them, unless you were able to keep track of who owned the mountain?

Dollars are actually pretty good at all three. They don't die. They're pretty stable in terms of value. It's pretty easy to give someone Dollars.

Bitcoin are... ok... at some of these. It's pretty good as a unit of account - if you can secure your wallet. It's... ok... at being a store of value - there have been some very high-profile sudden value fluctuations that left people holding a bag. It's pretty easy to give someone Bitcoin, but not trivial. It looks like it costs about $1 to make a bitcoin transaction happen, where I can transfer a few dollars for free.

I'm not a Bitcoin supporter, but I don't think it's fair to malign the tech for things it actually can do.

[jgilias]

Regarding mountains as money. There has actually been a case in history where a group of people used hard to move large stones as money. The bigger the stone, the more value. While these would initially be transported, once on the island where they were used, they wouldn’t get moved around, while ownership would change.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones

[distortedsignal]

1. Great source, great story. You're absolutely correct.

2. Yeah, I was trying to come up with a simple "can't be exchanged easily" things and I (pretty obviously) failed. Got any ideas of "can't be exchanged easily" stuff?

[jgilias]

I think your example is a good one!

The Rai stones are just a curious example of how creative people can get with their ledgers. And by extension - what happens when people who can manufacture your unit of account out of thin air come along.

[distortedsignal]

Thanks for your kind words. I'm kinda going through it today, and it helps to have people to lift you up.

I hope you have a great day.