[13010] in Cypherpunks
Re: Giving Value to Digital Cash
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Wed May 4 08:04:58 1994
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 03 May 1994 22:52:11 PDT."
<199405040552.AA02485@xtropia>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Wed, 04 May 1994 07:59:20 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@snark.imsi.com>
anonymous@extropia.wimsey.com says:
> Most major economies are using fiat money today, so it is clear that fiat
> money will work.
Fiat money works because guns are used to force people to accept it.
You have to pay your taxes in it, the laws are written so that all
commercial paper requires that you use it, the government makes all
its purchases in it, etc. The result of this is that it is accepted.
It is substantially harder for people to accept fiat money that
doesn't have guns barrels backing it up.
Perry
