The coincidence of wants is an economic phenomenon where two parties possess something desired by the other, highlighting the rarity of mutual possession of interchangeable items of value. This underscores a challenge that money effectively addresses.
Money serves as a medium of exchange, acquired not for consumption or production but for later exchange. Ideally, money is a store of value across space and time. It can be transported into the future or to another location for exchange into goods and services.
Money is a unit of account, serving as a measure for pricing and comparing the value of different goods and services. Money should be portable, divisible, fungible, and durable for it to be considered good money.
At the Bitcoin Atlantis Conference in Madeira, I asked Bitcoin professionals such as Lyn Alden, Peter McCormack, Ben Perrin from BTC Sessions, Niko Jilch, Eric V. Stacks, and more for their take on what money is. Find out what they had to say in the following video:
Peter McCormack: “Bitcoin is money to me. That’s it. Bitcoin is money. Everything else is a shitcoin.”
Aleks Svetski: “Language of value.”
Florencia Montoya: “Money for me is the best layer of human interactions.”
Eric V. Stacks: “I kind of subscribe to Saylor’s description of money. Economic energy. I think it’s an instrument to store and transfer life force that we put into goods and services, and we trade with each other for each other, yeah.”
Lyn Alden: “Money to me is basically the best ledger. So people, you know, they all want to store their value in something that they can bring with them, that they can send value to others that can’t be debated. And so whatever does that the best, and whatever has the biggest network effect of liquidity to make that goal work, it’s basically that which makes it so we don’t have to barter. It sidesteps the problem of friction. This basic technology makes trade easier at every step, either by being the shared unit of account or otherwise making the process of trading and commerce easier to do.”
Ben Perrin: “The money I use now is a mechanism to secure the fruits of my labor well into the future, not just for myself but for my family and my eventual grandchildren. It’s breaking away from a money that failed at doing that previously. So yeah, money is just simply a way of pushing my hard work now into the future for family members who can benefit from it.”
Julian Liniger: “The tool to save and hold and transact value, right? Basically nothing else.”
Niko Jilch: “The short answer would be Bitcoin. It’s a tool and a form of language we use to communicate new wants, wishes, and value. Bitcoin shows me how well that can work, but it would be the same definition for fiat money most of the time. I don’t want to give an economic definition of money right now. I think it’s more interesting to think about it as a tool. It’s something that ideally should save your purchasing power after you’ve acquired it, something unheard of in the fiat money system. In the end, it is a tool, and just like every tool, it’s good to have it, but it’s also important to use it and not just sit there and be happy that you have a tool.”
Conclusion
The insights from these Bitcoin professionals reveal a range of perspectives on what money is and its role in society. Common themes include money as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a tool that facilitates human interactions and economic transactions. Bitcoin, in particular, is highlighted as a modern evolution of money, offering solutions to some of the limitations found in traditional fiat currencies. Whether seen as economic energy, a ledger, or a means to secure future value, the essence of money remains its ability to enable and simplify trade, ensuring that the fruits of one’s labor can be preserved and exchanged efficiently.
