What Currency Actually Does
Imagine working for an entire week, only to discover your paycheck might buy nothing more than a cup of coffee by the time you receive it. This isn't hypothetical—it's the lived reality in countries with unstable currencies like Venezuela and Zimbabwe, where people learned the hard way what happens when money stops being predictably boring.
Real currency must provide a stable measuring stick for economic life. Like a ruler that doesn't change length, money must maintain predictable value so people can price goods, make contracts, and exchange labor for reliable purchasing power. The moment people start timing purchases around currency price movements, it has stopped being money and become speculation.
The Hidden Infrastructure of Stability
Making currency actually work as boring, stable money costs the U.S. government approximately $13 billion annually and employs 50,000+ professionals:
Federal Reserve System: $7.1 billion yearly for monetary policy, banking oversight, and active price stability management.
Treasury Operations: $5.9 billion for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ($1.2B) and U.S. Mint ($4.7B) to manufacture secure currency with sophisticated anti-counterfeiting features.
But the real infrastructure goes far deeper. This includes thousands more across three branches of government: Congressional oversight, federal courts handling monetary law, Secret Service protecting against counterfeiting, banking regulators ensuring system stability, and the entire legal framework requiring dollar acceptance.
This massive institutional commitment isn't bureaucratic overhead—it IS the stability. The boring predictability that lets you buy groceries without checking exchange rates exists precisely because 50,000+ people work full-time to maintain it.
Why Fiat Currency Works
When President Nixon ended the gold standard in 1971, critics claimed fiat currency wasn't "backed by anything real." This fundamentally misunderstands what gives currency value. Modern fiat money is backed by something far more powerful than gold: active institutional management designed to maintain price stability.
The Federal Reserve doesn't randomly print money. It actively manages supply, adjusts interest rates, coordinates with fiscal policy, and responds to economic shocks—all targeting the 2% inflation rate that prevents both deflation and excessive price swings. This modest, predictable inflation allows wages and prices to adjust gradually without the economic paralysis that comes from currency speculation.
Why Cryptocurrency Fails as Currency
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fail spectacularly at being money. When an asset's value can swing 20% in a single day, it becomes impossible to use for ordinary commerce. No rational employer would pay wages in Bitcoin; no rational employee would accept such volatile compensation.
The fundamental contradiction lies in crypto marketing: these assets are simultaneously promoted as both "currency" and "investments." This is economically impossible. If Bitcoin actually succeeded as everyday currency, its price would stabilize and stop generating the explosive returns that attract speculators. The speculation that drives price volatility is precisely what prevents crypto from functioning as money.
The inflation and deflation trap: Inflation means prices rise over time, making your money buy less. Americans frustrated with 4% inflation should imagine the mirror image: 200% deflation, where prices fall dramatically. If your coffee dropped from $5 to $1.67 overnight, would you spend anything today? Both inflation and deflation destroy currency's function by forcing every transaction to become a timing decision based on currency speculation rather than economic need.
The Stablecoin Exception That Proves the Rule
Some will point to stablecoins like USDC as functional cryptocurrency. But stablecoins aren't independent currencies—they're parasitic on the fiat system. They work precisely because they're backed by real dollars and regulated to maintain that peg. They're essentially digital versions of existing fiat money, not revolutionary alternatives to it.
Strip away the dollar backing and regulatory oversight, and stablecoins would become as volatile as any other cryptocurrency. They succeed as "currency" only by depending entirely on the institutional framework they claim to replace.
The Moral Argument
This isn't just about economics—it's about truth in marketing. Famous investors Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have been characteristically blunt about cryptocurrency. Buffett has called crypto "rat poison squared," while Munger said "in my life, I try to avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad … and bitcoin does all three."
Cryptocurrency promoters aren't just selling speculation; they're actively undermining public understanding of what money actually is and how it works. When people lose savings chasing appreciating "currency," they're victims of a fundamental deception about the nature of money itself.
Real currency serves society by enabling commerce through boring stability. Cryptocurrency "investing" serves no social purpose beyond enriching early adopters at the expense of later participants who don't understand they're playing musical chairs, not using money.
The Warning
If you choose to gamble on cryptocurrency speculation after understanding this, that's your decision. But don't pretend you're using currency, and don't claim ignorance when the music stops and you are left holding worthless tokens.
Currency that promises to make you rich isn't currency at all.