The word “crypto” in the dictionary means: ‘hidden’ or ‘secret.’ The prefix crypto as attached to crypto-currencies, means they are ‘hidden’ or ‘secret.’ Is Bit-coin a secret? I doubt it, and as far as crypto-currencies are concerned, there are over 1600 of them and more are devised every day. No secret there either. How does one create a crypto currency? Simple. Get a title, scribble a design, and have a coin maker make some, saving the dye for future use. I think a better word for a crypto-coin is a stupid-coin. Why? Because, just like Monopoly paper money or wood monopoly houses and hotels, they are of no value other than playing the game, and have been, and still are created by the millions.
A one hour program on the BBC Saturday morning, 9/7, dealt with crypto-currencies and I thought it was very amusing to me, a gold and silver aficionado and true believer. The reason it was amusing, is because not once were gold and silver mentioned, nor the fact that crypto-currencies are in the thousands and can be produced as far as the eye can see, with no limits. None of them having any tangible value of any kind, was not mentioned, but inferred. The entire radio show seemed to me to blatantly avoid the key issue and that is limited number of and value of them. I’ve written about the utter folly of saving in dollars, or Bit-coin, and now Facebook is coming out with the Libra, which is of course made of base metals, and backed by nothing. In the show, towards its end, they told of a man somewhere in the wilds of Northern Russia, who had made an exact die of Bit-coin, and was making lots of them. Coining money, in other words, and actually not prosecutable by law, since his Bit-coins and the ‘official’ Bit-coins, are exactly the same. I am certain there are more and more hobbyists or others who have duplicated the dies of Bit-coin, and are also ‘making money.’
Counterfeit dollars are against the law because the buck is an official instrument of the U.S. Treasury Department. However, the Federal Reserve (which is not federal and has no reserves), can and does print endless millions of dollars every day, and creates them out of thin air, sells them to the U.S. Treasury on credit and us taxpayers pay the interest on the loan. It’s so damned stupid and obvious. Why haven’t some caught on? Are us gold and silver enthusiasts the only ones with a bit of economic sense? Money, according to the dictionary, has two definitions: “(1) Standard pierces of gold, silver, copper, nickel, etc. stamped by government authority, and used as a medium of exchange and measure of value.” The second definition is paper money issued b y government. I was amazed at the first definition, since I had never looked up the word ‘money’ in a dictionary. Go to a bank and make a loan. The bank creates your loan dollars out of thin air, just like the fed does, only you pay the bank interest on what they created out of thin air. Correction, by law the bank is required to have 10% actual cash on hand for every dollar loaned. See why it is profitable to own a bank? That’s called ‘Fractional reserve banking.’
Since dollars are still the world’s reserve currency and the strongest paper money in the world, and I am sure, this is because the U.S. creating trillions out of thin air, must be microscopic compared to Argentina’s peso, which now approaches zero, and others around the world. Financial ‘experts’ say that Argentina can possibly get out of its jam by getting rid of its peso and switching to dollars. Ecuador did it in 2000 and it worked. We do it and it works, at least for now, but remember, the dollar has reached zero three times already, and today it has lost 97% of its value of a hundred years ago. Save in a crypto? Anyone who does that is similar to someone voting Democrat, or believing that something with no intrinsic value, which can be produced at virtually no cost ad continuum, has actual value. Anything tangible, such as a car, furniture, a home, food, clothing, tools, etc., have value. Some have more value as they age, such as antiques of all sorts. It makes sense to save in tangibles, in other than as a hobby, tangibles which are compact, easy to store, are recognized the world over as having value, are beautiful, tarnish free, rust free, and a host of other desirable things. Gold is first, and silver an easy second, other than the fact that silver requires 82 times the storage space of gold. Neither are ‘crypto.’ don@coloradogold.com