• HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    My brother in Christ, all money is fake. Even gold coins are ‘fake’ money, because all money is a social construct used to represent an abstraction of value added through labor.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      all money is a social construct used to represent an abstraction of value added through labor.

      That’s the definition of money. It’s not fake. It is an abstraction, but it’s not fake, and we’ve built an intricate system of laws and regulations about it.

      Bitcoin is fake money. It’s not backed by any government or any real rules and regulations. It’s the same as every other “tech” company. Take an existing thing, remove all regulations, pretend it’s a new thing, and pocket the increased revenue.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Money existed before there was an intricate system of laws and regulations. Money existed before there were fiat currencies, backed by nothing except a gov’t’s promises. The fact that bitcoin doesn’t have those doesn’t make it any more real, or less real, than any other thing used as currency. It has value because people believe that it has value.

        Gold is much the same way. Gold has an intrinsic value for making things that conduct electricity (particularly because it doesn’t corrode), but all other values exist because it’s both relatively rare, and people have decided that it’s pretty.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Currency existed prior to governments; Native Americans in some areas used rare shells as a form of currency; the currency wasn’t a part of their governing process, and by any modern standards, their governments were very loose.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        At current exchange rates, about 0.000029. That’s going to vary slightly from day to day, in much the same way that the price in Euros, or Japanese Yen will vary if the price is in USD, because currency valuations fluctuate comparatively.

        I remember a time the GBP was worth about $2.50 US; it’s currently more like $1.30 US. Euros used to be worth considerably more than US dollars, but it’s very near parity right now.

        As I said, money is an abstraction, it’s not a real thing. European labor didn’t used to be more valuable than American labor, and now it’s worth the same. The abstraction that money is has drifted farther away from the reality that it’s supposed to reflect over time.

        • humbletightband@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          Everything is an abstraction. A cat is an abstraction. There’s no cat, only an animal living in your apartment that looks like other similar animals.

          What makes this money fake you’d ask? Probably because you cannot buy lettuce for it. Only illegal stuff, money, other fake money and, in some places, you can buy a hotel room for a few nights. Idk, crypto looks more like a commodity than currency to me.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            What makes this money fake you’d ask? Probably because you cannot buy lettuce for it.

            …But you absolutely can buy lettuce with it. You just have to find someone that will accept that particular currency. Are you seriously going to argue that Canadian currency isn’t real money just because I can’t buy produce in the US at most stores using Canadian loonies or toonies? And you can use American currency very, very easily to buy illegal stuff; pretty much every in-person drug dealer in the US accepts folding cash. (They just don’t take credit cards, PayPal, Venmo, etc. because that’s easily traced.)

            Edit: a physical cat is not an abstraction. A physical, individual cat is the thing itself. The abstraction is the concept of “cat”; when you think “cat” as a concept, you aren’t thinking about a specific, individual animal, but of a concept that defines ‘catness’; it probably has fur, whisker, pointy ears, a tail, etc., even though an individual cat may not have any of these things.

            • humbletightband@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 months ago

              But you absolutely can buy lettuce with it. You just have to find someone that will accept that particular currency.

              Well, I can find a nerd who would sell me some lettuce for Nintendo Switch. Does it make Nintendo Switch a currency? Nope. With Canadian dimes I guess I can go to any shop in Canada and buy it, which makes it a valid currency in Canada. What you are right about, is that almost every currency is regional.

              you can use American currency very, very easily to buy illegal stuff;

              Oh thanks, if they allow me to the US I’d probably make use of this information.

              Edit: a physical cat is not an abstraction. A physical, individual cat is the thing itself. The abstraction is the concept of “cat”; when you think “cat” as a concept, you aren’t thinking about a specific, individual animal, but of a concept that defines ‘catness’; it probably has fur, whisker, pointy ears, a tail, etc., even though an individual cat may not have any of these things.

              Fuck Kant. As you mentioned, cat is definited through catness, but catness is defined through cats, hence a cat abstracts all cats. Unless you think of all other cats, your physical cat is a cloud of atoms

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      s/added through/extracted from/

      Money won’t magically appear from air if I will make a chair.