> The whole ecosystem currently remains a giant confidence game
Money is also a giant confidence game. Any human system is that. It’s all made up.
Money is also a giant confidence game. Any human system is that. It’s all made up.
Even for contemporary fiat currencies today this is neither historically nor theoretically true. Currencies gain their value largely from being convenient in settling trades and being a measure of value when calculating costs, risks and profits. Ultimately, it does not really matter what this money is based on e.g. gold, paper or digital information.
For anybody interested in this perspective and in a more general criticism of fiat money I strongly recommend reading "Ethics of Money Production" by Jörg Guido Hülsmann. (1)
(1) https://books.google.de/books/about/Ethics_of_Money_Producti...
Just because we made something up doesn't mean there aren't different levels of stability for that made up model, or different levels of real world results from acting on those models.