Quote from: ShortCoins on December 14, 2017, 03:14:24 PM

The reason we need money is to have a medium to exchange goods and services for each other. Money is the way we divide the world's resources.

What is money?
Money is a FUTURE claim on services or goods. It represents an amount of goods one is entitled to collect on

Now lets think about how this differs from crypto currency

The reason we need crypto is to exchange goods and services for each other using a digital medium and to provide it in a decentralized but secure way.

What is crypto?
Crytpo is a PAST claim on services or goods. It represents an amount of goods or services that one has already used

Here is what I mean by the difference between a future and a past claim on goods or services. Money is a future claim on the world's resources (including labor and services). You can use that money at a future point to collect in on what you are 'owed'. This differs dramatically from crypto. Crypto is actually a past claim on services or goods, because it cannot be earned without destroying resources. The value of crypto comes from the fact that electricity, man hours, and hardware are destroyed in order to create. We are essentially destroying resources in order to make a medium that will allow us to divide the rest of the resources up. Instead we should be earning currency based on the good things we do and the resources we protect. We should be incentivized to save the world, not destroy it.

I think the process of adopting crypto is too much of a sacrifice when it comes to resources. The very things we are trying to divide up we are destroying. We arguably need money to divide the resources, but we don't need to destroy resources just to make the money

This is perhaps more of a philosophical approach, but personally i think Money means different things to different people.

Somebody living in a poor part of the world struggling for basics will probably see Money as nothing more than a means of survival.

For me, its more a store of value, a asset and then a medium of exchange.

What you said about electricity and hardware being used to produce Digital Money like Bitcoin may be true to a extent, but then the same can be said for Paper Money - we as a species probably
destroy millions of acres of trees and forests to produce the paper needed to then produce our valuable paper money. Also we "destroy" or "consume" millions of tons of concrete, wood, metal and other
commodities to produce Wealth in the form of a House - the Houses we build become a asset and a store of value, and we can exchange them for cash/goods/services...coming back to the point that we
consume alot of things to produce a single House but that doesnt mean its not beneficial, it actually has many benefits.

Same thing with digital money. The speed, the transparency, the ease with which we can send/receive digital money makes it more efficient than carrying around stacks of paper money.

I also dont think Bitcoin only represents a past claim on goods/services.... if that was the case i would not be able to buy things with it now.

Even my Car - which cost alot more than a Bitcoin to be produced in electricity, hardware, and man-hours, is not a past source of value, because i can sell it and exchange it for other forms of wealth.

If you argue Digital Money is a depreciating source of wealth like my Car or Laptop - again i would beg to differ because it will continue to have value so long as people give it value - and thats basically what money is.

Also if your main objection to Bitcoin and Digital Money is the cost of production (electricity, hardware) then i think you should look into Alt-coins - some of which are produced/generated in radically different ways that
does not involve 'mining' at all.

adam2018

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