Bitcoin (BTC), a supply-capped, decentralized, neutral money, can help reduce warfare by eliminating the currency printing that governments use to finance war through the hidden tax of inflation, according to author Adam Livingston.
Livingston pointed to the World Wars of the 20th century, which saw the rise of central banking and the erosion of the gold standard, as the prime example of how fiat money fuels endless wars that the public would not have supported if a transparent wartime tax had been levied.
He also cited the collapse of the paper currency under the Song dynasty in 13th-century China and the hyperinflation of Assignats in 18th-century France as examples of how governments financed war beyond their means and debased their currencies. Livingston said:
“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.”
Sound money advocates have long touted Bitcoin’s power to separate money from the state and alter humanity’s trajectory, much in the same way foundational technologies like the printing press dramatically altered human civilization and helped erode centralized power structures.
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Fix the money, fix the world
Bitcoin advocates argue that sound money is necessary for human flourishing, and moving the world to a Bitcoin standard helps promote technological innovation, social cohesion, artistic creation, and freedom.
Earlier monetary media, including gold and paper currencies, are deeply flawed, with the former leading to the centralization of money and the latter being a poor store of value due to money printing, according to Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard.”
Paper currencies, in particular, slowly rob the holder of future value every time the issuer prints more of the currency to finance government spending, Ammous writes.
This erosion of value has secondary and tertiary effects on society that impact everything from family life to how individuals prepare for the future.
A society with faulty stores of value will necessarily “discount” the future, whereas a society with sound money will place a greater emphasis on saving for the future, inventing paradigm-shifting technologies, and building civilizational capital, Ammous said.
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