Now that QT is nearly done collapsing the Bitcoin bubble, there’s much less material for snark. One thing still holds true: Polistra’s Reciprocal Realism Rule.
Realism(bitcoin) = 1 / Realism(world)
Writers who see the world in stark clarity fall for bitcoin, or shill for bitcoin.
Writers who see bitcoin clearly are lunatics on all other subjects.
John Tamny is near the second pole but not fully. I used to notice his pieces cited in RealClearEconomics, where he was firmly in the Forbes/Kemp camp of zero-taxers. Zero tax solves all problems, especially the problem of insufficiently rich robber barons.
In this clip at a Futurist conference, Tamny gives us some welcome clarity on bitcoin, knocking down the interviewer’s naivete. He understands the true nature of money. Money is trust. Trust is money. That’s all. Bitcoin can’t be money because it intentionally and specifically rules out trust.
Tamny also seems to understand the emptiness of the “technology”, which is nothing more than an ordinary array or list.
Most interestingly, he proposes a future where SCRIP replaces government money. He foresees people using ‘Amazon dollars’ or ‘Morgan dollars’, currencies created by companies. This makes vastly more sense than bitcoin. Scrip was the trust-medium of last resort in situations where government or banks shut off the official money supply.
Polistra's Mill 