According to author Adam Livingston, Bitcoin (BTC), a decentralized and finite form of currency, has the potential to reduce warfare by curtailing the currency printing that governments utilize to fund wars through the covert tax of inflation.
Livingston pointed to the 20th century’s World Wars as key examples of how fiat money can perpetuate wars that the public would likely have opposed if a clear wartime tax had been implemented. He argued that the rise of central banking and the decline of the gold standard during these conflicts exemplified this phenomenon.
He further illustrated this with historical instances like the collapse of paper currency during the Song dynasty in 13th-century China and the hyperinflation of Assignats in 18th-century France, showcasing how governments financed wars beyond their capacity while devaluing their currencies. Livingston stated:
“Monetary power is political power. When a government can conjure currency with a few keystrokes, it acquires the means to project violence far beyond what citizens would ever approve of if the bill arrived as a direct tax. In other words, fiat money is the silent partner of every modern war.”
Proponents of sound money have long emphasized Bitcoin’s capability to dissociate currency from state control, thereby changing the course of humanity similarly to how foundational technologies like the printing press reshaped civilization and diminished centralized authority.
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Fix the money, fix the world
Bitcoin proponents maintain that sound money is essential for human prosperity, and transitioning to a Bitcoin standard can foster technological advancement, social unity, creative expression, and liberty.
Earlier forms of monetary media, such as gold and paper currencies, have significant flaws. Gold has led to the centralization of currency, while paper money suffers from value depreciation due to excessive printing, as articulated by Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard.”
Ammous notes that paper currencies gradually strip the holder of future value with every additional unit printed to support government expenditures.
This devaluation has cascading effects on society, influencing everything from familial dynamics to individual future planning.
A society relying on flawed stores of value will inherently tend to discount the future, while a society with sound money is more likely to prioritize saving, innovate breakthrough technologies, and cultivate civilizational capital, according to Ammous.
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