0 sats \ 4 replies \ @elvismercury 14 Jul 2023 \ parent \ on: Bitcoin needs more "physical" spaces bitcoin
Beware of people who don't see that money is a social coordination mechanism, and there are many forces at work in how groups of people choose to coordinate. The "technical" details matter, but they aren't the only things that matter.
(And which aspects of the technical details are salient for which situations is also complicated.)
indeed. prices fail to function as signals of supply when the currency is debased but the majority don't care if they don't suffer, and attack those who are being robbed.
Prices cannot be reliable signals without hard supply parameters.
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I'm not trying to nitpick you to death, but this is really the crux of it. From an absolutist sense, or maybe a Hayekian one, you're right -- fiat makes these signals unreliable. But what does that mean, practically? On what timescale?
It's undeniable that state-controlled money screws up the purity of the price signal, and all the human values that it aggregates. In return, the state assumes some ability to influence the coordination of people who operate under that fiat standard. Is this privilege abused? Clearly. Can it result in disaster? Yes, many examples show it. But does it have its virtuous uses? Could it be, on net, good?
Most bitcoiners would scream "no!" but most everyone else, including people from all over the world, throughout modern history, who have spent their lives thinking about the topic, and who did not stop their intellectual journeys after reading the Bitcoin Standard, have more nuanced views.
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I've heard some respected Bitcoiners say essentially, fiat isn't inherently "bad", it actually brought a lot of people put of poverty and raised standards of loving for a lot of people. It's just an artificial system that needs to be upgraded and replaced.
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Centralisation makes it seem like we can be more efficient in communication but for every perceived gain, there is a great deal of hidden cost and survivorship bias drastically distorts the image most people percieve.
I'm pretty sure it's like energy production in animals. For every extension in one direction, you have to trade off capacity in others. Taking these centralising shortcuts actually yields a net lower common wealth.
In the end, the laws of nature will dictate the final outcome, human aspirations are meaningless if they don't comport to it.
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