i had perplexity explain "cinkciarze" as another possible inspiration for you:
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Cinkciarze – The Original Peer-to-Peer Currency Market in Pre-90s Poland
Who were they?
• Cinkciarze (from the English “ching-ching” sound of coins) were underground currency traders in communist Poland (1940s-1989).
• They exchanged Polish złoty for US dollars, Deutsche marks, Swiss francs, and other hard currencies, helping people protect their wealth from government-controlled hyperinflation.
• The Polish state banned foreign currency exchange outside official banks, but cinkciarze offered a decentralized alternative—often more efficient than the state’s broken system.
How does this relate to Bitcoin?
• Bitcoin is the new cinkciarz—it allows people to store value outside government control, especially in economies with unstable currencies.
• Like Bitcoin, cinkciarze provided a peer-to-peer financial network where supply and demand determined the exchange rate, not central planners.
• The state tried to crack down on cinkciarze, just as some governments try to regulate or ban Bitcoin today. Yet, they thrived because people needed an alternative to bad money.