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As much as I love Hallaq's Impossible State (and I highly recommend you read it as it's part of the Muslim Bitcoiner reading list!), the one thing that annoyed me was the complete neglect of Fiat Money as an essential apparatus of the state. Actually, I'd argue that it's quite impossible to conceive of a modern state without the necessary institution of fiat money, as that's the main way (and perhaps the only way) the modern state funds itself and maintains its bureaucratic machinery.

Hallaq even had an aptly titled chapter, "Beleaguering Globalization and Moral Economy" and even starts off the chapter with a quote by Georg Simmel about money. Hallaq understandably goes on and on about capitalism, corporations, and globalization, but neglects to explore the global institution of usurious fiat money and fractional reserve banking and their role in maintaining the state's sovereignty, legislative monopoly, and bureaucratic machinery. It would have made this chapter and the book a lot stronger if he explored it.

alp 8mo ago

Isn't the state's sovereignty, legislative monopoly, and bureaucratic machinery possible on a sound money standard? The bureaucracy wouldn't be so large, but there would still be a smaller tax rate for defense spending (which is the primary function of a state).

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Muslim Bitcoiner 8mo ago

Well there's two ideas.

It's easy to conceive of a state functioning in the same way just on a smaller scale under a Bitcoin standard.

But there's also the idea that Bitcoin could radically change the way states operate, so much so that they wouldn't be anything like they are today.

Either one could be likely.

I use the phrases "Bureaucratic machiney, legislative monopoly, and state sovereignty" because these are the "form properties" that Hallaq uses in his book. Would have been cool if he characterized fiat in those form properties.