The Bitcoin Law: Counterfeit Free Choice in Currency

George Selgin“Why should we not let people use freely what money they want to use? [They] ought to have the right to decide whether they want to buy or sell for francs, pounds, dollars, D-marks, or ounces of gold. I have no objection to governments issuing money, but I believe their claim to amonopoly, or their power tolimitthe kinds of money in which contracts may be concluded within their territory …to be wholly harmful.”—F.A. Hayek,Choice in Currency: A Way to Stop Inflation, p. 17.So, it has happened: a country —an honest to God,bona fide, country, complete with its own flag, coat of arms, seat at the U.N., army and air force —a small navy, even!—has adopted bitcoin—that ' s right, bitcoin! —as its official currency. In one stroke, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador ' s popular though controversial young President, has accomplished what many, myself among them, thought might never happen.Any way you view it, it ' s a huge step for thebitcoin network, and onesome see as establishing a precedent other developing countries might follow. No wonder that, although it ' s now been more than a week since the Bitcoin Law was passed, many Bitcoin devotees haven ' t stopped celebrating.And I ' d be celebrating right along with them, were it not for some of the Bitcoin Law ' s disturbing features.Faster than LightningIf El Salvador ' s move came as a surprise to bitcoin skeptics like myself, what must it have seemed like to most Salvadorans, who probably learned of it only a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs