• TheDoctor [they/them]
    ·
    9 hours ago

    I’m pretty sure the history of money and bank notes is full of people doing similar things with bitcoin. We’re just used to a relatively mature banking industry that only operates scams through dozens of layers of indirection.

    • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      Niall Ferguson wrote a good book about money in modern (post-Reformation) history. He sets out to prove that financialization is the foundation of human progress, gets caught in currents that seem to prove something quite the opposite, and then ends by restating the hypothesis with none of the rest of the book backing it up.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      8 hours ago

      The modern credit system began with failsons in numerous feudalistic countries wandering around without money in their pockets but still demanding food, drink, and lodging because they were born special.