In the fall of 2004, I had the opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation for art, money, time and history by viewing Diego Rivera’s mural, “The History of Mexico”, at the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) in Mexico City. I had been studying Spanish for a while and was familiar with Diego Rivera’s murals but I thought they lacked detail, were cartoonish, and I could not understand why people were so often awed by his work. I was fortunate enough that day to have a great teacher who explained to me how Diego’s mural was actually a historical narrative intended to help Mexico’s mostly illiterate 1930s population learn their country’s history. The mural started to come to life and I quickly found myself in awe as the teacher verbally explained the story Diego’s mural was telling and the meaning behind the smallest details. I believe there is some insight the genuine Bitcoin community can gain from Diego Rivera and his murals.
One scene depicts an indigenous chief wearing an extravagant headdress made from Quetzal feathers. The Quetzal was deeply ingrained in Aztec and Mayan cultures; their gods had Quetzal characteristics, their laws protected the birds and limited who could possess feathers, and the Guatemalan currency is still called the Quetzal. Another scene in the mural depicted a market place with various people exchanging common goods. The people in the scene all had baskets, bags, or handfuls of Cacahuatl (Nahuatl/Aztec word for Cacao seed) which the teacher told us they used as money. The mural told us that Native American cultures valued medals such as Gold and Silver but they could not understand why the Spanish were so obsessed with them. It always fascinated me that these people’s most valued possession was a feather and I still wonder how things like Gold, Silver, and Cacao Beans came to be used as money.
In May of 2020, Isaac, Steve, Deryk and TK invited Daniel Krawisz (The Emperor of Bitcoin) on their show to discuss Bitcoin and the history, function, and adoption of monies. Their debate about the primacy of money was intelligent, educational, and somewhat entertaining but they refused to see the causality dilemma created by the interdependent nature of money’s functions. This made the debate almost painful to watch as they put themselves into a loop of infinite regress like a Bunch of Numpties. Debating which function of money is primary to its adoption is like debating whether the chicken or the egg came first.
My theory is that man’s first monies emerged naturally over a significant period of time as innovators looked for and tested better ways to store value liquidly, exchange goods and services more efficiently, and determine the relative value of goods and services more accurately. The Cocoa Bean likely came to be used as money by the Aztecs because its innate properties enabled it to best meet the primary functions of money. It had an intrinsic nutritious value that could easily be stored, it was abundant enough to be common to all but required a relatively significant amount of work to cultivate, and it was easy to carry around and count out. The same argument could be made for Barley in ancient Sumeria but these currencies were replaced by metals and then fiat systems because it is in man’s nature to seek better ways of doing things. Bitcoin’s secure, immutable, public, permissionless ledger along with its divisibility, limited supply, and ability to move peer-to-peer at the speed of light make it capable of meeting the primary functions of money far better than anything humans else have imagined. This is why Bitcoin will, in due time, replace today’s money.
Better tools and technologies always succeed in the long run but truly revolutionary innovations often require more time to be fully adopted than their visionaries might expect. On 19 April 2022, Vast Expanses of Savanna posted, on Twetch, a thread of Alex Agut saying “it [BSV] failed as a unit of account despite its merits.” My net worth has significantly dropped recently and I would not know how many Duros or Sats to pay for a cup of coffee if I could purchase one with Bitcoin, but I do not believe Bitcoin has failed as a unit of account or as a Peer-to-Peer Digital Cash System. I believe Alex, in this case, is that typical entrepreneur who had the right idea a decade too early.
Bitcoin’s revolutionary potential is so exciting it can cause those who understand it to become over-zealous. I had to view Diego’s mural from a different perspective to really appreciated it and similarly, it would serve us Genuine Bitcoiners well to take a more realistic perspective on how much time it will take for the masses to trust this system enough to replace the current monetary system our societies and livelihoods depend on. I recommend the BSV community take a lesson from the way Diego Rivera used his art to educate future generation and, as Bitcoin eventually does mature into money, we name the denomination after historical currencies to educate posterity about history and money and pay homage like Alex did. When children 200 years from now ask why a Satoshi is called a Satoshi, their parents can tell them about Craig. When they ask why so many Satoshis is known as a Cacao, a Pound, a Quetzal, or a Dollar; their parents can teach them about the functions of money, the Aztecs, Isaac Newton, and the problems with Fiat and Central Banks. When they ask why a Duro is 50,273 Sats, their teachers can say it’s because Alex had a dream.