[halfcat]

> It’s purely about perception of value

All money has always been about perception, whether we used paper, shiny rocks, or sea shells as money, it’s always been about perception. Is it real or counterfeit, do you trust the person you’re transacting with, are enough people you know using it, and will people with weapons show up to protect your money if someone else tries to steal it?

The “people with weapons” part turns out to be a key component. The novel thing about crypto is that you are less reliant on the “people with weapons” to protect you and tell you what you’re allowed to do with your money, and more reliant on the “people with encryption”.

[wordpad25]

No.

Fiat is backed by tax base. US has more assets than debt. Additionally US is the largest economy in the world, how much would the right to tax it be worth? A lot.

It's not at all just perception and influence as you claim.

[abdullahkhalids]

US economy has been second largest for over 10 years now [1].

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-maddison-project-data...

[signatoremo]

Huh, the paper cites World Bank, but WB themselves report differently:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD

Any other official sources would tell you that US is the largest economy in the world by GDP, which is the most commonly accepted metric.

[malfist]

I don't know where that site is pulling their data from, but not even the Chinese government claims their GDP is as high as that. And our GDP is higher than that site claims

[Detrytus]

This is Purchase Power Parity GDP (as indicated by the subtitle "This data is adjusted for inflation and differences in the cost of living between countries.")

[AnthonyMouse]

> Fiat is backed by tax base.

The general form of this is, it's backed by something that will accept it as payment. But then the same is true of non-fiat currencies.

The value of a currency is simply, what can you get when you spend it?

[macinjosh]

So hyperinflation only happens when the tax base disappears? Perception and influence is clearly part of the picture.

[Spooky23]

It’s one of the core attributes. Zimbabwe wasn’t going to be raising a trillion dollars of revenue.