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My point was simply that the verifiability of the world supply isn't what ended it's reign as a currency. some 40 or 50 years where it was illegal to hold let the generations who were famliar with using it as a currency die off. In the meantime people were conditioned to believe that paper held similar value (once upon a time it did).

2minutebitcoin 2y ago

and the core reason for paper existence and proliferation was the difficulty and risk in transporting gold

World War 2 was the major reason. There is a book that talks about the flow of gold during the war - it is a massive logistical headache and risk

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Peter Gibbons 2y ago

I don't have a problem with "paper" per se. I have a problem with a currency that is based entirely on debt. The Fed was born in 1918. WWII didn't start until 1939. Gold was outlawed in 1933 "in order to prevent the export, hoarding, or earmarking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency" not because it was difficult and risky to transport.

> on April 5, 1933, one month after taking office, Roosevelt used the powers granted to the president by the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 to make gold ownership illegal. He issued Executive Order 6102, which made gold ownership--both in coins and in bars--illegal for all Americans and punishable by up to ten years in prison. Anyone caught with gold would also have to pay a fine of twice the amount of gold that was not turned over to the Federal Reserve in exchange for paper money.

Peter Gibbons 2y ago

You *could* argue that WWII was a money printing bonanza and the first test of the new system put in place in 33, but it decades after the Federal Reserve was born.