From: Vincenzo lozzo Sent: Friday, July 18, 2.111/Pl a To: jeffrey E. Subject: "Money is not money" I thought a bit about this. Let me see if I understand what that =entence means: Money has no intrinsic value (even when it was linked to gold, the =ntrinsic value was debatable) , fundamentally the value is given by two =hings: 1) Wide acceptance as an exchange medium 2) Trust in the country that prints the currency On top of that there's a lot of anchoring and other cognitive biases =hat cause the currency to oscillate in value. So in a way, money is a very simplified legal contract between multiple =artier that is ultimately both enforced and backed by a nation-state =the 'trust' in the nation-state acts as the collateral). Is this what you meant? If that's the case there are a few interesting consequences: 1) Paradoxically Bitcoin has more intrinsic value than nation-state =acked currencies. That is because mining bitcoins require natural =esources that are limited&useful and hence valuable 2) In this game (and I think by extension in the stock market game as =ell) deception plays a significant role. You can make a currency swing =f you can mess with the cognitive biases involved in the valuation of =he currency 3) At any given point in time you could replace any currency with =omething else as long as you can convince people that that something =Ise is both backed and enforced by a 'greater force' (in the bitcoin =ase, that would be cryptography). The easier it is to explain the =greater force' the easier the adoption of that 'something else' Now one obvious way to make money out of this would be to play the =eception/cognitive bias game. I think a lot of that is made illegal by =he various law against market manipulation, insider trading and what =ot. The question is: what is not covered? Obviously the other way would be to create another currency, own part of =t and then resell it once it appreciates in value Am I making sense? Vin