The Bitcoin Standard is a NOVEL novel!
Mainly because it tells about the different currencies of the past and then some!
One interesting currency was a block of Limestone!
It was called the Limestone currency!
Limestone currency refers to Rai Stones (or fei), large, circular, carved limestone discs from the island of Yap in Micronesia, used for centuries as a unique form of money, valuable not just for size but also for their difficult history of quarrying in Palau and perilous sea transport!
The value of the stone was determined by size, quality, and the dangerous journey (storms, lives lost) involved in bringing them to Yap!
The way it was used is very interesting!
The stone would be placed in the middle of a street or wherever it was and it remained there! Only the ownership changed!
It was used for significant social transactions like marriages, inheritances, and payments, though smaller ones traded for goods!
The ownership only used to get transferred through community consensus and oral history, with stones sometimes staying in place for generations! One fine day a big guy would come and tell that the stone is his while the next day he would ‘give’ it to another for some other material or even as a ‘payment’ to marry his or her daughter! All the while the STONE would simply stay there without a care of the world! Only the ‘owner’ moved!
This is actually a powerful symbol of wealth, history, and cultural identity for the Yapese people!
The limestone currency demonstrates a sophisticated, non-centralized economic system!
In fact one of the ‘latest’ currencies to have a similar character is the Bitcoin!
You do not actually have the bitcoin when you ‘buy’ it! It stays there! All you have is ownership!
So for all the ‘modern’ tags to the coin, we are still using a system which is centuries old!
Centuries old are also the great amazing musical history of India! And also the musicians like santoor specialist
Shivkumar Sharma!
Now stop thinking about your immovable assets like limestone and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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