On the Practicalities of Counterfeit-Proof Physical Bitcoins

fsterman writes "What do you get when you cross physical one-way-functions, a distributed and secure datastore, with physical Bitcoins? A viable alternative currency for micro-nations and dictatorships with hyper-inflation." Whatever your thoughts on bitcoin, it's interesting to think about the infrastructure and production cost of the tokens we use as money more generally.

Comments

Re:Why do dictactorships have hyperinflation?

[PopeRatzo]

Bitcoin is (possibly) a useful alternative to the individual citizens of countries that are trying to solve economic problems by printing money.

It is not, on the other hand, a useful alternative for the governments that are just printing money....,

No, you're right. In fact, since a great deal of what passes for "prosperity" in developed nations is the direct result of governments "just printing money".

Even if we could stop inflationary policies, I'm not sure most of us would want to, since it would mean a protracted worldwide economic downturn. For better or worse, the debt-based fiat currency is the air we breathe, economically. If you're going to buy into the notion of constant, ever-increasing growth, then you are stuck with the insanity of what our central banks have been doing.