
A Brief History of Private Money and Crypto - Shah256ofSF
https://www.cryptocurrentsblog.com/cryptocurrents/this-time-is-not-different-a-brief-history-of-private-money-crypto
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nickik
I must say this article seems like a bit of rambling. However it is true that
private and digital currency are not new.

The description of things like the Bank of England and so on seem to me a not
very exact or well explained.

First, I would say that money does not always and everywhere require debt.

The point however stands that currency systems can often be private,
independent of the underlying money. Meaning the underlying money could be a
fiat money, a gold standard or bitcoin. Currency systems unlike money often
involve some kind of debt.

If people are interested I would first consider:

\- Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of
Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 (Lecture:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gn55fTRXZw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gn55fTRXZw))

A more detailed view about free banking in Britain:

\- Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate, 1800–1845
([http://iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/upl...](http://iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/upldbook115pdf.pdf))

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Alex3917
I like this post overall, but the idea that credit and scrip are the same as
money and currency is a bad mental model to have. The difference is that
credit and scrip are tied to a single business or institution, whereas the
price of a currency is driven by the value that _many_ independent
institutions contribute to a network.

Most cryptocurrencies today are glorified in-app tokens that just happen to be
stored on a blockchain, but some of the few that are actually currencies will
be worth trillions.

