Money is an abstraction built on promises and trust, and currencies differ by how hard, reversible, and well-governed those promises are.
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I started writing here in 2005, mostly about bootstrapping software companies. I kept writing, on and off, until 2016, by which point I was writing about Ethereum smart contracts. Then the blog went quiet for the better part of a decade while I went and built the things I’d been writing about. I’m bringing …
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Balance sheets are useful terms from accounting showing a snapshot of the financial state of a company. Balance sheets consists generally of 3 columns: Assets Liabilities Equity These map directly to the Rights and Obligations I rambled on about a couple of weeks ago. An Asset is a Right and a Liability is an …
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In my previous article I talked about Rights and Obligations and how they apply to blockchains. If you have the right to someone’s obligation there may be a risk that the other party can’t (or won’t) comply. This is called Counter-Party risk. A simple example of counter-party risk is if you lend money to your nephew …
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Rights and Obligations are the 2 most fundamental building blocks of trade and finance. Contracts exist to protect rights and enforce obligations. Trade consists of trading one right or obligation for another. They are also fundamental in understanding how Financial Systems, Blockchains and Smart Contracts work, yet …
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Tomer Kantor just posted another really good article about Bitcoin’s Competitiveness In Kenya. Tomer worked on a great Documentary on Bitcoin in Kenya, where he interviewed me and other people in the Bitcoin scene in Kenya. As part of his article he posted previously unreleased interviews with me and Elizabeth …
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Updated 4/21/2016: Updating this as this is also now affecting the Gift Card industry. Added crypto currencies in general. Moved hosted crypto currency wallets like Coinbase and UpHold up to a 3 since the industry has changed a lot since 2012 (No more BitInstant or Coinbase). Removed Liberty Reserve for obvious …
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Trust is probably the most fundamental property that money should have (but doesn’t always have). You need to be able to trust: that my money does not lose value that I can exchange it again This article is mainly about the trust of currencies without intrinsic value. A currency with intrinsic value is something like a …
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Continuing on my series about currencies, I thought it would be useful to talk about some of the fundamental properties that currencies have. Feel free to ready the previous articles see On currencies, virtual or otherwise and 4 flavors of the mighty dollar after this one or in order. My main audience for this article …
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Continuing on from yesterdays article On currencies, virtual or otherwise I thought I’d look at the US dollar. I’d argue that the US$ is not just one but more like thousands of different competing currencies Is $100 in cash the same as $100 in my bank account or as part of my PayPal balance? Not really? They aren’t …
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Currency is one of the most popular buzzwords right now and there are lots of different definitions. I’ll try to unify them in some way and talk about some of the issues involved. Over the next couple of posts I’ll try to analyze what currency is. If you ask most people on the street, currency is what they have in …
