Bitcoins: A Fully-Compliant Currency The Government Can Love

I’m finishing up a novel, a piece of speculative fiction in a genre you could call “economic-thriller”.

The Mark of the Beast?

In the book, the dollar crashes in a hyperinflationary fire (natch), replaced by a new currency called the american. The exchange rate at the time of the changeover is $1,000 equals ₳1. To illustrate its purchasing power, ₳1 buys you a candy bar.

However, americans don’t exist as physical currency. There are no “american bills” like there are dollar bills, and no coins either. Instead, americans are a fully digital currency: They exist in the ether. You need a card—be it a credit card, debit card, or EBT card—to spend americans. And to receive americans, either from employers, customers, government, etc., you need a “central account” which is tethered to your Social Security number.

The rationale for these measures is convenience—but the implication is, no one can earn, save or spend money without the government being aware of exactly what you are doing.

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A Calm Analysis of Bitcoins as a Currency

I got quite a bit of backlash for writing a couple of days ago about bitcoin (post here). My criticisms were fairly mild—I’m not unsympathetic to the drive behind making bitcoin work.

“Where’s bitcoin?”
Uh . . .

But even such mild criticism of the bitcoin enterprise was enough for some of the bitcoin-faithful to denounce me as a heretic, or worse, an apostate. Or worse, a shill for the banksters and their minions. Or worse still, a fucking idiot who didn’t know shit-all about bitcoins and what they represent—the future!

Okay . . .

To be clear, I am not against bitcoin, or any other of the so-called “cryptocurrencies” (cybercurrency sounds more accurate, but I’ll stick with the current convention). Neither in principle nor in practice do I object to these immaterial, manufactured, fiat currencies. Hell, I’ve had a bitcoin wallet since 2011, when I parked a few hundred bucks in it when it was at $8 a BTC.

So I’m fine with bitcoin—but I’m not a mindless cheerleader for the thing.

When talking about bitcoin, cognoscenti have to admit, and neophytes have to understand, that bitcoin does not do all that people claim it does. Far from it, bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are severely limited.

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