Replying to Avatar Guy Swann

There’s a very simple test to understand this:

1. Everyone produces a ton of stuff and trades it for money

2. They hold the money for 10 years

3. All of society is destroyed production stops due to economic crisis or natural disaster

4. Everyone still has their money

Can you get the energy out of the money now?

Obviously you can’t, because none is being produced and the money didn’t actually store it. It is a record that allows you to trade for new energy produced far into the future because someone else values the money as a trustworthy record keeping system.
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Guy Swann 9mo ago

Also I like your potential energy analogy, but it doesn’t apply here. Potential energy is *actually* energy. It’s the measure of a force being exerted that *could* be realized. In other words, without gravity there is no potential energy. So we are just measuring gravity, which is present and constant. There is no force being “exerted on money” that would allow it to suddenly turn into energy in the same way. Very different mechanisms.

My test in the other post is the best way to make this obvious.

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bitcoinpoorguy 比特幣傢伙 🇭🇰 9mo ago

Can we say :

Money is an abstraction that facilitates the storage and transfer of value.

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Guy Swann 9mo ago

Yeah of course. Thats basically what a tradable record keeping system is.

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MNMeschke 9mo ago

Your milk money example has a small issue I can't resolve. If trading milk for money and in two years want to trade back(assuming no inflation). Your analogy is only relevant if hold both sides to the same scrutiny. you would only be able to get the exact same molecules of milk if you give back the exact same molecules(serial number, BTC number) of money.