Alex Millar is a blogger, podcaster and YouTube publisher, with a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. In this opinion piece, Millar expounds his theory that money is energy, arguing that bitcoin provides a superior alternative to fiat currencies from a purely scientific perspective. In physics, the definition of "energy" is "that which allows work to be done." This means that money is energy, since it can be used to do work via payments to people. The energy in money can be thought of as "economic energy". Economists call economic energy "price" and measure it in terms of "euros" or "Kenyan shillings" and so on. But, these units are abstract because their quantity changes over time. Physicists would prefer to use units such as joules or kilowatt-hours, which have a concrete basis in physical realities of mass (kg), length (m), and time (s). Since money is energy we can apply the Law of Conservation of Energy, which says: "Energy cannot be created or destroyed, merely transformed.” You might remember examples of this law from high school science: a toaster transforms electrical energy into thermal energy; a blender transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy. A $100 bill has significant economic energy. And yet, it was created in an automated process using inexpensive raw materials and an insignificant amount of electrical energy. This invites the question: from where did the economic energy in a $100 bill come from? The answer lies in economics 101, which says that price (economic energy) is a function of supply and demand. As the overall supply of a commodity increases, the energy of each unit decreases. Therefore, the energy contained in a new $100 bill was transformed from pre-existing dollars, each of which lost a tiny fraction of its energy. Power […]
