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Category: Money

Money is central to our never-ending search for a free lunch because it is a proxy for our most precious resources – time and energy.

What is the future of money? Six differing visions

the future of money

What will money look like in the future? Will it even exist at all? Peer into six differing visions for the stuff that makes the world go round.

Featured post

Published May 17, 2024
Categorised as Money Tagged bitcoin, fiat money, post scarcity

What’s the fate of crypto tokens? Look to 17th-century London

The fate of crypto tokens

There are currently at least 13,000 different cryptocurrency tokens in existence. Can all of these new forms of digital money survive? 17th-century London might provide an unexpected answer.

Featured post

Published January 29, 2024
Categorised as Money Tagged crypto, fiat money, history

Operation Bernhard – The Nazi plot to carpet bomb Britain with fake pounds

Operation Bernhard Drop Fake Money Britain

Learn the story behind Operation Bernhard, the Nazi plan to counterfeit British pounds and then drop them on the UK to cause economic chaos.

Featured post

Published January 13, 2024
Categorised as Money, Society Tagged fiat money, history

The Chiasso billion dollar Bearer Bond mystery

Chiasso Bearer Bond Mystery

In 2009, a sleepy provincial Italian town was the scene of one of the strangest-ever financial crimes. Two Japanese men en route to Switzerland were found by Italian police to have $134 billion in bearer bonds in a false-bottomed suitcase.

Featured post

Published January 9, 2024
Categorised as Deception, Money Tagged fiat money, grifting

What is currency debasement?

currency debasement

We illustrate the dull concept of currency debasement by looking back at the Roman Empire, coin clippers, hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and connect it to the rise of Bitcoin.

Published January 2, 2024
Categorised as Money Tagged bitcoin, fiat money, hyperinflation

What Squirrels & Cicadas can teach us about time preference

squirrels time preference & saving

A Cicada that waits 17 years underground to emerge; a Squirrel that can memorise the location of thousands of nuts by value. Meet nature’s low time preference specialists.

Published December 23, 2023
Categorised as Money, Risk Tagged human biases, time preference

The crypto custody conundrum – How to secure a Seed

Memory Palace Crypto Self Custody

From memory palaces to punching passwords into metal sheets, we look at solutions to the unique security problem posed by crypto’s promise to be your own bank.

Featured post

Published December 21, 2023
Categorised as Money Tagged bitcoin, custody

What are the origins of money?

origins of money animal teeth necklace

When you learn how our need for money first emerged, it might change how you value your time and energy today.

Published December 12, 2023
Categorised as Money Tagged evolution of money, history

From salary to the dollar, the disputed origins of money terms

Pieces of eight dollar origin

Where did the dollar symbol come from? Why is the word salary connected to Roman soldiers and salt? Discover the disputed origins of common money terms.

Published November 14, 2023
Categorised as Money Tagged dollar, history

Historical Myths About Money – From Salt to Barter

Have you heard the story about where the word salary comes from? If it relates to Roman soldiers, I’ve got some bad news. It’s one of the most popular historical myths about money.

Published November 12, 2023
Categorised as Money Tagged explainer, fiat money, history

Posts pagination

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Popular Posts

  • What is the future of money? Six differing visions
  • What’s the fate of crypto tokens? Look to 17th-century London
  • Operation Bernhard – The Nazi plot to carpet bomb Britain with fake pounds
  • The Chiasso billion dollar Bearer Bond mystery
  • What is currency debasement?

Blog Archive

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  • Deception

    Deception is one of the main means of selling propositions that, in reality, are just too good to be true. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

  • Discovery

    Discovery is the key to human progress and value creation; new technology, new ideas and even new planets.

  • Money

    Money is central to our never-ending search for a free lunch because it is a proxy for our most precious resources – time and energy.

  • Risk

    Learn the role that risk, and our understanding of it, plays in the most common failures of our decision-making processes.

  • Society

    Social structures are the means by which humans organise and cooperate, but inequality, poverty and environmental degradation suggest they might need a rethink.

  • Work

    Work is the way we generate value. We exchange our time for money, but is that historical arrangement in need of change?

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