From young age, we are being taught that money is a national currency printed by our central bank and that currencies and money have certain characteristics in order to become what they are.
Imagine a story, where - “Once upon a time in a land far, far away there was a… central bank. And that bank had a monetary policy that was equal for everyone across this land. And everyone was happy…”
If the above statement seems like a bit of a fairytale to you, then you are probably, just like most people on earth, don’t understand some of the values that have been put into money by the financial system. Values that most do not agree on and do not understand.
But one thing that most will understand and agree, is the fact that money - is simply a means for communication. Numbers that speak the same for everyone, no matter where you are from and what it is you do. With almost a 99% guarantee you will be able to speak the language of money.
This is because money is pretty much like a language. A means to communicate value. Just observe kids playing around. They exchange value daily. It can be gaming cards, it can be leaves, it can be shells. You name it. Exchanging value is socially in build into everyone of us. It is a language we all speak and share from birth to death. Humans are socially interactive, and money is the oldest protocol that helps us to do that with ease.
Today, there are roughly as many currencies as there are countries. Even less, due to the fact, that some countries use other countries currencies. And, yes. That means, that they have to comply with the monetary policy of a foreign country. No one will ask anyone whether you want to comply with it or not, you just have to.
On a playground - would you be able to exchange the best pokemon out there for the worst one? No. You wouldn’t comply to that (unless you were forced to of course).
And now that we are able to create currencies that aren’t a just a mix of: unlimited supply, someones imaginary monetary policy and a useless piece of paper - we will. We already do. Will we still have the same amount of currencies in the world in 10 years time? I doubt that. I doubt that people will refuse to put their own value into tokens and cryptocurrencies when they can. They will do it, and they will choose that anyday over the enforced useless money they have today.
Unfortunately, currency is not a choice in the centralized world… But values are! Values can and should be chosen by communities, not centralized entities.
One can certainly do many researchers, write clever and thoughtful papers as to why tokens and cryptocurrencies cannot be accounted for money. Why they shouldn’t have values and how they don’t meet the conditions in order to become money.
But you should ask yourself the following simple question. Can you exchange them for something else of value? For example, can you exchange bitcoin for bread in a “third world country” today? Yes. And yes, you will be able to do it with other cryptocurrencies also. And you know why? Because someone believes it has value. Simple. End of story.
Cryptocurrencies will (and already do) have value as long as 1 single person believes that it has it. And it’s not just about tokens. Anything can have value as long as 1 single person believes it has it. And if someone second believes that it has value too, then it can be exchanged. Then it can be spoken. Its a language of exchanging value.
Not traditional monetary values, no. But value in its “simplest” form. For someone, for anyone.
And would you choose a currency that is controlled by a central authority that can print as much of it, as it likes, whenever it wishes to do so. Or, would you choose a currency, that has a fixed supply and a mathematically proven algorithm? No more printing. Only proven algorithms. Only values that really matter.
Anything can be tokenized. Companies, brands, cars, houses. Why not? This is expression of value at its natural form. Just like once upon a time, content was a matter of centralization to the big newspapers, that could write and print whatever they wanted, it is now, a matter of social networks to show the real content to the people, by the people. And money is no different. It is the same content with value. Value does not have to be centralized, remember that.