Did you know that, near the fall of the Roman Empire, Rome had debased its silver Denarius so heavily that it actually stopped accepting it as a payment for taxes? The government stopped accepting its own currency! Instead they demanded payment in commodities such as grain, oil, and gold. Imagine if the US government required that taxes be paid in commodities. Bitcoin and gold would likely be the most commonly used, rather than food. At the surface it sounds like a Bitcoiner's dream to be able to pay your taxes in Bitcoin! But in Rome, it wasn't a move to a free and open monetary system. It was an admission of defeat which coincided with increased economic control, restrictions on movement, increased social and occupational rigidity, and military & bureaucratic expansion.