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Comment by toenail | Hacker News Reader

You may not know this, but there is no reserve asset on this planet any more. Central banks world wide use the dollar, which was backed by gold when this agreement started. But it isn't any more, and it is only backed by more debt creation/money printing.

Historically, money backed by weak reserves has always lost against money backed by stronger reserve assets. I find it funny that people believe that infinite debt creation is superior and will win against absolute digital scarcity.

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> Historically, money backed by weak reserves has always lost against money backed by stronger reserve assets.

Can you say more about where this has actually happened, and how it's applicable in this situation? (I'm actually curious)

I'd recommend https://www.lynalden.com/broken-money/

I don't think there's anyone who actually thinks that using the debt fueled dollar as reserve is the best position. And digital scarcity is not a thing unless you are talking about pokemon cards. Bitcoin is not backed by anything other than crime, money laundering & financial derivatives.

> Bitcoin is not backed by anything other than crime, money laundering & financial derivatives.

Then short it.

???

USD is backed by literally nothing. LITERALLY NOTHING.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages...

> Federal Reserve notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything

> USD is backed by literally nothing. LITERALLY NOTHING.

that is not quite right. historically USD has been backed by the USA military

And the US military is backed by debt, it's turtles all the way down. Force is not a reserve asset.

Let's be real, fiat currencies are essentially backed by Uranium 235 and defense industry engineering capabilities. (both as it relates to turning the U235 into large amounts of energy in a small amount of time and producing other things like aircraft carriers)

funnily enough you CAN actually redeem the banknotes for these things but most people don't typically enjoy the experience

agree. the USD dollar is backed by the threat of violence which is how I understand what it means to be an empire; in contrast with a 'civilization' (though it seems as though empire is the early stage of civilization, it boots things up)

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