Unhampered Enterprise from the Ground Up—Free-Market Money

How a World Without Half of Every Transaction Being Sabotaged Looks Like

Picture this: a world where money transcends borders, governments, and regulations. A world where financial sovereignty is not just a dream but a reality. Welcome to the realm of free-market money—a concept that challenges the very foundations of our monetary systems. Free-market money is money not pushed upon on the people by the government. Free-market money is money chosen by the market. As you know, the market provides the best approach to find effective and efficient solutions. Hence, if we do not let the market determine our money, this has tremendous consequences.

Half of Every Transaction

Nearly every transaction we conduct daily consists of two parts: a product or service provided and a monetary equivalent received. Money is 50% of the equation. With that, half of every transaction is not the consequence of people making free decisions but government manipulation.

Further, money is what individuals use to store their wealth—or at least they would store their wealth in money if it was not losing a percentage of its value every day. Because of this artificially created need to store wealth in other assets, people need to be asset managers in addition to their normal jobs. Money fundamentally influences how we live.

From Ray Stones to Bitcoin

Money fulfills a basic necessity of civilized life: to store what people contribute to society across space and time. The need for a medium to achieve this value-storage function existed before state-created money was introduced. As many had that immense need, the market provided solutions. Populations all around the world utilized different resources as money: rare shells, immense stones, or precious metals. Until, in the 19th century, there were two forms of money left: gold and silver. Subsequently, as the harder form of money, gold drove out silver, and the whole world was connected through one monetary standard: the gold standard.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century, states started implementing their currencies. Since nobody believed a piece of paper had any value beyond a few cents, paper money could only be introduced as representation of gold. That’s why the first dollars printed weren’t “Federal Reserve Notes” but gold certificates. In the subsequent 20th century, every nation state used wars and disasters as excuses to abandon gold as money, and most governments backed their currencies with dollars. In 1973, Nixon took the US, and with that, the whole world, completely off of the gold standard. This large-scale experiment causes all sorts of economic problems (e. g., business cycles). It is failing miserably: the fiat standard.

Since 2009 there is a revolution underway: Bitcoin. Bitcoin just existing is profound, as Bitcoin is a money chosen by the market when it could not even choose a money. The problems fiat money created are so enormous that people found an alternative, and this alternative has not only been operating reliably for 15 years, it also has appreciated from not having a price at all to, at the time of writing, more than 60,000 USD. Bitcoin has evolved from a plaything of some internet geeks to a non-optional part of influential investors' portfolios. Hence, a free-market money is not just a wet dream of some libertarians anymore, it is becoming a reality. Bitcoiners are creating the Bitcoin standard.

A Lower Time Preference

If the market chooses a monetary matter, it will choose one that has the ability to hold on to its value, so that the representation of each person’s contribution to society won’t wither away. The money will deflate, as no one would choose to save in a money losing value. In the past, people chose gold. In the future, they will choose Bitcoin, a monetary medium that has all the positive attributes of gold, such as being immune to be printed by governments, and non of the negative attributes, such as being arduous to use for daily transactions on a small scale as well as for large money transfers.

A deflationary monetary base unit has implications evolving around thinking more long-term. When you switch from an inflating to a deflating money, your time preference decreases drastically. You do not need to spend your money for consumption or investment, as it appreciates over time. Hence, sellers will need to provide good reasons for you to part ways with your hard-earned money. Cheap products vanish and producers will start using more durable materials for their products again. Have you ever seen a coat from your grandpa? He can still wear it today. In contrast, if the coat you bought yesterday can still be worn in five years, you can call it very durable.

Sovereignty Over Your Money

Since you learned about the negative consequences of fiat money by reading this and adjacent articles, you will start storing your wealth in gold or, more future-oriented, Bitcoin. The first implication of that is your sovereignty over it. Whereas money in your bank account can be frozen and seized, a bar of gold in your cellar is fully under your control. However, handling bars of gold is strenuous. That’s were Bitcoin comes in. If you store your Satoshis in your cold wallet, no state actor can ever access them without you granting that access. You can send them whenever you want, to whomever you want, to pay for whatever you want. Bitcoin transcends borders and escapes from governmental control.

Second, storing your wealth in free-market money evades inflation. Central bankers cannot transfer the value you created to the state by printing money. They can’t print gold or bitcoins. You don’t need to asset manage in addition to your job, since you save in an asset that appreciates. You escape the Cantillon Effect.

The Revolution Continues

Free-market money isn't a mere concept—it’s been the standard in the past and it will be the standard in the future. With Bitcoin taking over, we are going on a journey of separating state and money. Everybody’s time preference will be dramatically lowered—one can only imagine what impacts this will have. So fellow traveler, how are you escaping fiat money?

Think for yourself and question everything, my fellow liberty people!