A Nickel Is A Nickel. Or Is It?

On today’s show we are going to take a fresh look a money. It used to be the case that a nickel was a nickel was a nickel.

It was made of nickel. It was worth 5 cents and you could buy bubble-gum with it or take a short bus ride.

But today we are taking a dive into the various new types of currency that are in existence or being proposed.

These are new types of currency are all different.

First of all, the biggest question underlying any currency is trust. Currency ceases to be effective as a means of exchange or as a temporary store of value of the confidence is not there. There are numerous checks and balances that governments have put in place to instill that confidence. We can debate whether that confidence is deserved, but that might be a topic for another day.

We have cash dollars

Dollars in a bank account

Dollars in a payment account like Paypal or Venmo

Money market funds held by a major bank

Digital currency

Crypto currency

Stable coins

Programmable coins

If you are holding a $100 bill, you can go fill your gas tank with that $100 bill. We don’t need to spend much time on cash currency. But what about all these others? How are they different from each other?

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Host: Victor Menasce

email: [email protected]