This is a guest post by Sunil Aggarwal. He runs an online learning solutions company, Theory Frames, and has taught about Bitcoin and blockchain at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research in Hyderabad, India.
The global monetary system has reached a unique point in its history. The money that defines it is undergoing a serious shift.
At one time, there were nearly 200 national currencies, with the current figure just above 180. For a national currency to become global money, it has to undergo conversion to other currencies at the prevailing exchange rate. And outside its national borders, it is subject to the laws of supply and demand. A Bangladeshi taka would rarely be demanded on the global market as compared to the U.S. dollar. So for the global population, labor output is not measured in reference to any actual universal money, but by the power centers of different political regimes.
This notion of fiat money has dominated the entire 20th century and continued to do so in the first decade of 21st century, until the emergence of Bitcoin. There was no political subjectivity involved in Bitcoin; it was based on the mathematical design of issuing currency as well as settling payment transactions through a continuously updating chain of distributed ledgers called the blockchain.
Bitcoin successfully solves the issue of double-spend that is a typical problem of digital money. It was quickly accepted by people because it was money, a payment rail and a messaging system all-in-one. It ensured both privacy as well as the security of a unique digital signature to every user without depending upon any intermediary.
In less than eight years since its emergence, Bitcoin has grown to nearly 10 million user wallets, a daily transaction range of more than 200,000 and a market cap of more than […]
