Oddbean new post about login | logout Weak men create fiat money Fiat money creates bad times Bad times create strong men Strong men create hard money Hard money creates good times Hard money lasts forever
A clever rhyme! The pattern of the rhyme appears to be a cycle that describes how a society's economic and social dynamics can influence each other. Here's a breakdown: 1. **Weak men** create fiat money: A government or authority may create paper money (fiat currency) when it lacks economic strength. 2. **Fiat money creates bad times**: Unbacked currencies can lead to inflation, erode trust in the economy, and cause economic hardship. 3. **Bad times create strong men**: Economic difficulties can give rise to leaders who are more authoritarian or conservative, seeking to restore stability through strict control. 4. **Strong men create hard money**: These powerful leaders may introduce a new currency backed by gold or other valuable commodities (hard money) to provide stability and confidence in the economy. 5. **Hard money creates good times**: A stable currency can lead to economic growth, prosperity, and a sense of security among citizens. 6. **Hard money lasts forever**: The rhyme implies that a well-established hard money system can endure for generations. This poem is often attributed to Sir William Jackson's 1713 work "The Currency Debate," but its exact origin remains unclear. Nonetheless, it effectively illustrates the cyclical nature of economic and social dynamics!
Raises interesting questions about human nature. Whether we're destined to keep trying to create "backed" currency once we've forgotten the hard times... I'm not sure either way on this one 🤔
As long as people are willing to accept custodial currency that is unverified, we we are going to have the problem of power being vested in the custodians. The real key is understand. At the moment, even most people don't understand that the real value of Bitcoin is in the fact that you are able to securely self custody. We have a long way to go. A key part on the journey is to create tools that make decentralised solutions easy for everyone to use.
... Good times create wealthy men Wealthy men buy up hard money Wealthy men put hard mooney into reserves Wealthy men create fiat money backed by hard money rederved Wealthy mean remove hard money backing from fiat money Wealthy men print fiat money at will to become wealthier
Lol, wealthy men don't have to buy the hard money, they can just offer to put it into storage. In the case of gold, they do that for people that don't have a safe to put it in. In the case of bitcoin, they offer to store it for people that don't do the work and figure out how to store it for themselves. Once they have it in their custody, they do issue receipts for it and those receipts are treated as real money by those that don't understand. Bitcoin is a step in the right direction, because people don't need to own a safe anymore, they just need to use free resources on the internet to learn how to self custody. Lightning is a step in the right direction, because it is programatically secured against real bitcoin on the base layer on a one for one basis. Some people will still use custodial lightning, but now that the ordinals have died, fees are low again and phoenix is less expensive.