• Lime Buzz@beehaw.org
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    1 month ago

    Sure, it has no real backing beyond that though, it’s just paper and maybe plastic or other fabric and numbers on a screen/in a database at the end of the day.

    That’s my only point really, that if not for the backing by the state or people’s belief in it, it would hold no value.

    • Yeller_king@reddthat.com
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, but that’s the crucial difference that fully explains why people use dollars and don’t use crypto widely (and likely never will).

    • shortwavesurfer
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      1 month ago

      It’s backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. And personally, I do not have very much faith in the US government and have not had much faith in it for a very long time. The other thing that backs it is the barrel of a gun, which they will point at you if you do not wish to use it.

    • apt_install_coffee@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      That’s… Always true though?

      Money backed by precious metals is the same fabric with numbers on it, and sure the idea is that you can always exchange it but if the government/bank refuses an exchange what are you gonna do? The exchange guarantee is backed by the state as much as the value guarantee is for fiat.

      Say you buy literal gold and use it for transactions, it’s value as a currency is still based on the trust that people will accept it in exchange; gold is not intrinsically valuable to an everyday person the way for example water is, so it’s value comes down to how much you expect to be able to exchange it for later, which is just taking currency faith the long way around, and in addition you need to consider purity concerns and the like.

      When you use crypto, you at minimum trust that it won’t be forked, and probably need to trust that the exchange mediator won’t rug pull. You also to some extent trust that the currency will be about as valuable tomorrow as it is today.

      Expecting your currency to have a “real backing” based on a physical property is just ignoring the basic fact that all exchanges of goods revolve around a debt relationship between at least two parties, which always requires some level of trust.

      When people trust a currency held by a state, it’s not just based on whether the state keeps its word, but also based on the fact that the state will use it’s monopoly on violence to maintain the integrity (large fines/prison for currency fraud) and value (requiring taxes to be paid in the currency) of that currency, which is a guarantee no other medium of exchange can have.

      • Lime Buzz@beehaw.org
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        1 month ago

        Yup. Currencies that use materials not immediately useful to (most) people are always trust/belief based.