Quote from: AaronCraig on September 30, 2014, 10:36:44 AM

Well put. There is a beautiful essay from Nick Szabo ("Shelling out - the origins of money") which explains this in more detail:

http://szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html

What's interesting about that Szabo paper is the inherent confluence of the evolution of fiat type money and social structure including taxation and violence.

It brings to mind the following questions pertinent to bitcoin.

1) Can a non-socially binded (apolitical) money thrive just because it is useful? That is, are messy social cohesions part and parcel of a working system of value or can value exchange be purified as an abstraction? My hope is that it can.

2) If all forms of money are inherently intertwined with social construct including national fiat, does Bitcoin's success ultimately depend upon same. At this point Bitcoin fulfills a psychological and philosophical need more than any market convenience. Perhaps is still necessary for an abstract ephemeral token to have value as an intellectually interesting artefact.

NikkieBeraj

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