5 Kinds of Money
Let's take a look at some "Old" and "New" kinds of money that have been popular in the past or will be popular in the near future. Money is only a concept for humanity and it is easy to understand more deeply.
Animals (birds) might collect the shiny kind or tear up the paper kind for nests, but it has no real value to them.
Humans have devised many ways in history to try and keep track of what we fairly contribute to a society. If you were alone in the wilderness, money would be useless to you. It is a concept that becomes most important when we consider how growing populations of the world interact with each other with relation to contributions, value, energy, and efforts, among other things.
Money has become almost as important as water in daily life. If you have enough, you'll be okay, but if you don't have enough you may eventually suffer from hunger, homelessness, and many other issues. Given the advancements in our collective human abilities, there is no good reason that we have not solved poverty as a societal issue. There will be no viable reason for any person on earth to not have enough water or money in the near future.
Let's look at five kinds of monies. Some have worked in the past, some work in the present, and some will work best in the near future. Change is the only constant, so you might be most interested in the newest on the list.
Here are the 5 Monies we'll look more deeply at in this post:
1 - Gold (not actively used by "the people" - Old)
2 - Bitcoin (actively used by "the people" - New)
3 - Gratitude (created for "the people" - New)
4 - Gold Certificates (made illegal for "the people" - Old)
5 - US Dollars (actively used by "the people" - Common)
Let's explore some common properties of "money":
- A unit of account (countable and divisible)
- 0.05 oz of gold
- 0.003 bitcoin
- 100 gratitude
- certificate of $100, redeemable for gold
- 100 dollars
- A standard of value (some useful correlation to value)
- 0.05 oz of gold - 1 hr of human energy
- 0.003 bitcoin - 1 hr of human energy
- 100 gratitude - 1 hr of human energy
- $100 gold certificate - 1 hr of human energy
- 100 dollars - 1 hr of human energy
- Transferable (ability to transfer / move)
- gold is physically handed off in units of weight
- bitcoin units are sent / transacted on a public P2P blockchain
- gratitude units are sent / transacted on a public P2P blockchain
- paper certificates are handed off in whole units
- dollars are handed off as paper bills or electronically in bank transactions including 3rd party processors like credit/debit card operators
- Store of value (accumulated for future use)
- recognizes value in extracting gold from the earth (energy & effort)
- recognizes value of computers solving computations to make new bitcoin (energy & effort)
- recognizes value of human life to make new gratitude (energy & effort)
- recognizes value in extracting gold and trust in a treasury (energy & effort)
- recognizes value in the banking system to issue & manage debt (authority & permission)
Who can create more?
Gold - Anyone who finds or mines more.
Bitcoin - Anyone who mines efficiently with the right hardware and access to low cost energy.
Gratitude - Anyone who creates value blocks and who receives "Appreciation".
Gold Certificates - Treasury officers who have proportional gold deposits.
US Dollars - All banks can create more when new debt is issued.
How is more supply created?
Gold - Finding or mining on earth.
Bitcoin - Bitcoin mining via ASIC miners.
Gratitude - Cryptographic derivation from Human Value Blocks
Gold Certificates - Treasury department specifications, processes, and printing.
US Dollars - New dollars are created when debt is issued by any bank. When a loan is issued, dollars are created. When a gov bond is sold (debt to the gov), the central bank creates more money supply.
How much can be created per day?
Gold - Upper limit unknown, limited to natural supply & discovery. A record nugget was the Holtermann ‘nugget’ worth about $5 mil today.
Bitcoin - Upper limit defined by protocols/code, today 6.25 bitcoin for 144 blocks per day (about $32 mil per day, about 1 mil estimated miners)
Gratitude - Upper limit defined by protocols/code, 2700 gratitude per person per day (can equate to $2700 per person per day)
Gold Certificate - Unknown upper limit, linked to gold daily deposit and historic daily print rate.
US Dollars - Unlimited in theory. $275 billion of debt (aka new money supply) was created in Oct. 2023 in less than 24 hrs.
Is it fair?
Gold - ⭐️⭐️ - Used to be more fair before machinery. Individual humans looking for gold was highly fair. Use of slavery to search for gold was unfair. Today gold mining is probably tied to debt capital access, not viable for most people.
Bitcoin - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Used to be more fair when 'basic' computers were used in bitcoin mining. With the advances in mining, it's still one of the most fair and accessible ways to create a new money supply because it can be done anywhere in the world and there is no permission needed to participate. With the right knowledge and strategy, it is viable to millions of individuals.
Gratitude - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Designed with fairness and accessibility in mind, gratitude derived from human effort/energy and recorded as value blocks is the most fair model for money creation we're aware of.
Gold Certificate - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Because a gold deposit was required to get a certificate, the protocol of issuing certificates was fair; but, the accessibility of these certificates to people was not very fair.
US Dollars - ⭐️ - Using debt to create money is largely an unfair practice. Debt is created, but interest on all money is "profit" for banks and loss for the people and the government. Debt is not available to many people and the additional interest losses are massively unfair to most people.
Is it based on real "value" (energy)?
Gold - Yes, ✅ real energy goes into extracting gold from the earth and processing it, it cannot be created from "nothing". It directly values "machinery" and "discovery".
Bitcoin - Yes, ✅ real electrical energy is needed along with intricately created mining computers to perform the blockchain verification processing. It cannot be created from "nothing". It directly values "computers", "electricity", and "innovation".
Gratitude - Yes, ✅ real human energy from life itself is recorded into a new ledger that is verified by real human peers. It cannot be created from "nothing". It directly values "human life", "altruism", and "cooperation".
Gold Certificates - Yes, ✅ real gold deposits were required to back a certificate. They could not be created form "nothing". These certificates directly valued "standards", "trust", and "measurements".
US Dollars - No, ❌ with the press of a button, billions or trillions of dollars can be created along with the associated debt. Dollars themselves are backed by no real "value" and are not proportional to an input "energy".
Why can it be created? For what purpose?
Gold - Mined/Created as an independent source of "wealth". Optional to become known for "discovery".
Bitcoin - Mined/Created as an independent source of "wealth". To be part of verifying the cryptographic blockchain and network. Optional to become known as a sustainable energy innovator.
Gratitude - Created as an independent source of "wealth" and a method to improve one's life and the world. Intention to free humanity from poverty and debt. Optional to become known for your "contributions", "altruism", and "generosity".
Gold Certificates - Created as a more convenient alternative to physical gold. Made transfer of value easier in day to day life. Was a service to the public provided by the Treasury.
US Dollars - Created only for perceived "profit" at the level of gov, business, organizations, or a person. The bank must be under the belief that the debt they issue, and the new money supply created from that will be repaid plus interest. The holders of all the "wealth" must believe the entities actions will lead them to more "wealth" accumulation.
As you can see, not all money is the same, but at least you now have the basic understanding of how you can compare and consider the kinds of money you want to use in the world.
We live in a time where it is now possible to choose the types of money we want to use. When you think about it you will also notice that the choices we all make in this category will shape our collective future.
We hope you enjoyed these comparisons of these money options, including some of the 'up and comers' that we can to look forward to.
- 8 value blocks went into this post, by two people.
- $800 of base value.
- Each "Appreciated" value block generates 100 Gratitude
🟧 Read About Ancient Monies (L) 💭👀 |Cur|{TW}{+E}
🟧 Researched Money History (B) 🔎💰 |Lrn|{TW}{+E}
🟧🟧🟧 Wrote Draft of "5 Kinds of Money" (B) 👨🏻💻🪙 |Cre|{TW}{+E}
🟧🟧 Wrote more on "5 Kinds of Money" (B) ✔️🌎 |Cre|{TW}{+E}
🟧 Added the US Dollar data to post (B) 💵 |+E|{TW}{+E}
If you enjoyed reading this post, we welcome you to give to these "value blocks" using bitcoin, a money created from "value", backed by sustainable energy.
Wallet of Satoshi
BlueWallet
Phoenix
These wallets are some of the easiest to use and latest Bitcoin Lightning wallets out there. They support the amazing LNURL spec used to generate this QR code.
