Money Just Has to Work

Money that won’t buy things isn’t just inconvenient; it is dangerous. Cryptocurrency based money, especially those based on global-consensus cryptocurrencies (basically, all of them) are especially fragile. Only during globally calm, disaster-free idyllic periods of history could they possibly pass as useful money.

What Happens When Disaster Strikes

The CAP theorem claims: Consistency, Availability or Partition-tolerance – pick any two. It is not possible (in theory) to have all three. But, ideal money is widely assumed to be CAP:

• Available: you can always buy/sell something for cash money
• Consistent: it’s not easily counterfeitable, and balances are verifiable
• Partition-tolerant: if you can “talk” to your counterparty, you can do a deal

AP

Global consensus systems are sometimes AP; they give up Consistency to maintain Availability, in the face of a...