I find that what one should see as ideal depends for some large part on the situation in which the currency is to be used.
Casinos have a different view on what is an ideal medium of exchange than, say, society as a whole.
So how do you define "ideal media of exchange" ?
Casinos have a different view on what is an ideal medium of exchange than, say, society as a whole.
So how do you define "ideal media of exchange" ?
The concept of "ideal" means completely removed from any particular situation.
From Merriam-Webster:
Quote
1: existing as an archetypal idea
2a : existing as a mental image or in fancy or imagination only;
2a : existing as a mental image or in fancy or imagination only;
The word you should have used instead of "ideal" is 'optimal' (most desirable or satisfactory). Big difference, as you've neatly demonstrated.
Anyway, I can't improve on Aristotle's definition of a good money (ie an ideal exchange medium).
I'm just glad to see it instantiated in Bitcoin. It's been a long wait for the Holy Grail of digital cash for us impatient fiat money haters.
I'd agree on the use of the word 'optimal'.
But I would say that 'optimal' is even stronger bound to a situation (or environment) than 'ideal'.
Something can only be optimal (or even ideal) if you consider it in a certain setting.
There is no absolute ideal (or optimum), they are all relative to the surroundings.
And to get back to the topic, Aristotles ideals are only partially applicable to todays situation.
Some of those ideals are even completely meaningless for a virtual currency.
So i'm pretty sure even Aristotle would agree that you need to keep checking if ideals still represent the optimum for a given situation and adjust the ideals accordingly.
Blindly following something said a couple of thousand years ago is not a wise thing to do.
If you cannot improve on aristotles ideals then you havent looked at how currency has been used for the last couple of decades.
For one, how about a prerequisite of currency being just information (making it possible to use over the internet)?
It seems to me to be something Aristotle would have never thought of simply because his environment never proposed such a possibility.
Nowadays currency systems that cannot transfer value digitally are becoming pretty useless at a fast pace.
That also puts some pressure on Aristotles ideal that a currency should have some form of intrinsic value.
I would even say that from current perspective the best thing would be if a currency had no intrinsic value whatsoever.