Читать книгу Bitcoin For Dummies - Peter Kent - Страница 16

Hang around in the Bitcoin community long enough and eventually, you’ll hear people talking about fiat currency, usually disparagingly. A fiat currency is currency by decree, by official order. A fiat currency is one that is issued by a government, without being backed by a commodity such as gold. (To quote Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman, “fiat currencies have underlying value because men with guns say they do.”) Most currencies these days are fiat currencies; the “gold standard” generally fell out of favor in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. (Great Britain dropped the gold standard in 1931.) The U.S. dollar used to be pegged to silver, but in 1900, a law was passed linking it to gold. It remained linked to gold through most of the century, until being completely de-linked from gold in 1971 and becoming a fiat currency. (However, in 1934 the U.S. did devalue the dollar against gold; that is, they reduced the weight of gold per dollar.)

The advantage of fiat currency is that it gives governments more control over the money supply. Many economists, probably most, believe that adherence to the gold standard prolonged the Great Depression, as governments were not able to stimulate their economies by increasing the money supply. The disadvantage, according to many true believers in Bitcoin, is that it provides governments with too much control over the money supply!

Now, if this all sounds a little flakey, a bit like a con game — and there are certainly plenty of people who will tell you that Bitcoin is a con game — we’re going to explain in a few moments what money is. You may think you know what it is, but you probably don’t, and without understanding what money is, it’s hard to understand how Bitcoin can be money. But first, a little more about Bitcoin.