To understand the revolution that cryptocurrencies represent, one must look at the transformations that money has undergone. The big turn, which still shapes the global economy, was the transition from the gold standard to the fiat standard.
🏛️ From precious metal to government trust
Under the gold standard, the value of money was directly tied to a specific amount of gold. Paper bills were essentially "receipts" that could be exchanged for gold at the central bank. This provided a sense of security and stability, as the money supply was limited by the amount of gold a country possessed. Gold was the tangible asset that guaranteed value.
However, this rigidity became an obstacle. The global economy needed more flexibility to grow, and the supply of gold could not keep pace with the speed of production and trade. Economic crises, such as the Great Depression, exposed the limitations of the system. The solution, which consolidated after World War II, was the adoption of the fiduciary standard.
In the fiduciary system, the value of money is not guaranteed by a physical asset, but rather by trust in the authority that issues it. Money has value because governments and central banks guarantee that it will be accepted for the payment of taxes and debts. It is, essentially, a promise. Its supply is no longer limited by a metal, but can be controlled by central banks, which use monetary policy to influence the economy.
📱 The new frontier: the era of code
The transition to the fiduciary standard was a radical change. But now, we are witnessing the beginning of a new and perhaps even deeper transformation: from fiduciary money to cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, propose a different vision. Instead of relying on trust in a government or central bank, they are based on cryptography and decentralized networks. The rules of issuance, circulation, and security are defined by programming codes, visible to all. This eliminates the need for intermediaries, such as banks, to validate transactions.
In the cryptographic standard, value does not come from a physical asset or from trust in a central authority, but from mathematics and the consensus of the network. The scarcity of Bitcoin, for example, is programmed into its code (there will only ever be 21 million units), replicating the idea of limited supply of gold. The security and immutability of transactions are guaranteed by blockchain technology, which acts as a public and unalterable ledger.
🗽 The New Era and the cryptographic revolution
The new cryptographic standard has emerged to bring real freedom and economic efficiency to humanity. In this cryptographic standard, money not only represents value but also possesses "personality," and each cryptographic "personality" proposes solutions to various financial demands of society more efficiently.
Cryptocurrencies have come to put an end to the political demagoguery that makes the economy inefficient and to free humanity from the oppressors and exploiters who drain the labor force of the people. The era of "causing the problem and then proposing the solution" will end.
