<story><title>Bitcoin is fiat money, too</title><url>https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2017/09/not-so-novel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dnautics</author><text>Interestingly the economist misses the traditional definition of Fiat: a currency whose value is determined by the &lt;i&gt;Fiat&lt;/i&gt; of a state.  Whether or not Bitcoin exhibits similar trends as currency that isn&amp;#x27;t backed by the state is immaterial to the ethical appeal (to some) of a medium of exchange where participation is voluntary and consensual.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>amb23</author><text>&amp;quot;Code is governance&amp;quot; -- the article does support the idea of cryptocurrency as fiat money because the laws, in this case, are the code. The developers and miners, no matter their good intentions, do hold power over the currency that everyday investors do not have. No matter how egalitarian the distributed ledger set up looks on paper, we&amp;#x27;d be remiss to think the power structures behind cryptocurrencies are so radically different from the fiat currencies developed in the past and used at present. With time, especially if the cryptocurrency bubble pops, we&amp;#x27;ll be sure to see those structures made more explicit than they seem now.</text></comment>
<story><title>Bitcoin is fiat money, too</title><url>https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2017/09/not-so-novel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dnautics</author><text>Interestingly the economist misses the traditional definition of Fiat: a currency whose value is determined by the &lt;i&gt;Fiat&lt;/i&gt; of a state.  Whether or not Bitcoin exhibits similar trends as currency that isn&amp;#x27;t backed by the state is immaterial to the ethical appeal (to some) of a medium of exchange where participation is voluntary and consensual.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Finnucane</author><text>Is Bitcoin actually a medium of exchange? It seems to be functioning more as an investment to be hoarded rather than spent.</text></comment>