Since 2011 when I was introduced to Bitcoin, I have received ominous alerts and messages that this is a scam, that I am going to lose all my money, that the bubbles blah blah blah. And they always sing the same songs, the one about tulips and the one about subprime mortgages. Guys, this is math. It has nothing to do with nature and flowers, or with the bubbles purposely set up by a gang of criminals who call themselves "banks." If you don't know, then study a little, because if you don’t, you will look like an idiot.

Whatever it is, a person, a group of people, or a collective entity emerged from the unconscious of the networks, Satoshi Nakamoto interrupted the equilibrium.

None of the technologies that blockchain uses is novel, however, the way in which they were combined caused the cryptocurrency uproar and the collective installation of the discussion and analysis of decentralization as the guiding and anarchic model of society. Brilliant minds have found that, using this protocol, a huge virtual machine can be designed to develop applications that until now were only implemented on a centralized basis by proprietary corporations or individual computers.

The blockchain is much more than coins. It is a new way of understanding human behavior, and the emergence of a new society. It is impossible to anticipate the processes that will be unleashed from a decentralized society through the massive application of blockchain technology, as it was impossible to imagine the current large internet corporations in the 90s, or the internet itself in the 80s.

Most people believe that money is the stamped paper called bills, which bears the faces of dead heroes. People buy meat and milk (medium of exchange), at different relative prices (unit of account), with money saved in their bank account (store of value). The notion of “fiat” money (money that exists by government decree) is a relatively new concept, and not only has it not yet stood the test of time, but it has also demonstrated an enormous propensity towards mismanagement and corruption.

After Germany left the gold standard at the end of World War I, for example, it took less than a decade for hyperinflation and the total collapse of its economy. Zimbabwe and Argentina are examples of spectacular fiat money failures. The rich can buy bubble-proof company stocks, real estate, and commodities like gold. The poor see their purchasing power deteriorating day by day.

"Moral: the cause of the rich getting richer is directly attributable to inflationary monetary policies"

Who is inflation good for?

If you do not have money, but there is money available and they offer it to you (banks, cards, mortgages, loans) you can consider taking it, to buy goods that you know will cost more tomorrow. Those who create money create inflation. Inflation generates more spending, less savings and eternal debt. And this is an absolutely "legal" system.

What other forms of money have been successful for long periods of time? Gold, snail shells, stones. They all have some characteristics in common: difficult to be lost or stolen, rare, difficult to be counterfeited, easily measurable, divisible. This is what is called "intrinsic desirable features."

Modern monetary theory, MMT, directly contradicts the fundamental notion that money has value for its desired intrinsic features. According to the MMT, money is "a creation of law" and derives its value from the state. Fiat money is the result of acceptance, the most horrible form of acceptance, agreeing to pay the government. When you buy groceries, you go into debt in the fiat amount transferred. The currency acts like a promissory note. The grocer receives a debt paper that can be exchanged for other goods. This suggests that money has no intrinsic value, directly confronting the above "intrinsic desirable features."

So, the Market IS NOT a place where goods and services are exchanged, but a vulgar “clearing house” to match debits with credits.

MMT maintains that we "have evolved" from snail shells, to gold coins and finally to "fiat" as a result of seeking more efficient ways to manage debt. Here's the key: the MMT is a concrete statement that the issuance of money is a debt.

"This is the big difference, Bitcoin is not a debt, it is an asset, as is a shell, a stone or gold."

The notion of a currency backed by an asset is a nightmare for the government, because it takes away the ability to control the issuance of money. With MMT, a government does not need to balance its budget, and then, the expenditure can be much higher than the income from tax collection, since the difference can be covered by the issuance of more money, that is, more debt.