A lot of posts saying that the older generation is not savvy, do not understand crypto, or do not like it. Come up, look at the technical sophistication of millenials. In 50 years are there really going to be people who are Luddites?
What you're proposing is essentially a government controlled crypto, where they are able to keep an eye on the network in order to manage taxation better, introduce monetary policy more directly, etc. etc. It's definitely something that is foreseeable.
In that case, wouldn't it still be a fiat currency, as there isn't a limited supply and still controlled by a government? It's just in a different form. Not in paper, but on the blockchain.
I meant for the government to use a third-party crypto like bitcoin, eg. So it would not be controlled by the government, except that they could compel citizens to pay their taxes in it, enforce collection, etc.
Those of you saying that fiat is not necessary doesn’t know what they’re saying unlike cryptocurrencies fiat can be used physically and this makes it very easy for it circulate properly, you can easily give money to a beggar by the street, but if it was with cryptocurrency beggars will need to get a same phone to be able to receive the coin you’re giving to them, and tell me…
Are you ready to stop and start bitcoin to beggar and wasting your time in the process? And by the way, who would agree to give money to a beggar holding smartphone or carrying a computer? Lol. Maybe you should try going to the market and trying to do trade by barter since you think fiat is not necessary.
I read an article recently about how tips have been decimated by digital payments, and persons like bellhops who were receiving cash tips have started accepting digital tips because so many people just don't carry cash anymore.
The price of old smartphones and with technology prices coming down and the quality going up, and crypto wallets becoming ubiquitous and easy to use, yes, it is conceivable that even beggars could accept digital payments. If you could go down the street and use it to buy food or water, then why not accept it as crypto?
As much as I agree with the first part of your post about a governmentally controlled crypto being just another form of fiat (since this is what I have been saying here for years myself), I as much disagree with the second part of it where you claim that the economy doesn't need fiat. It was the case a few centuries ago when, as you correctly noted, commodity-based currencies had been used universally. Actually, they were based on precious metals (mostly silver if we are talking about Europe), but this is irrelevant to the point in question. In the simplest of terms, economies didn't switch to fiat currencies just for kicks. In fact, it was inevitable, kind of objective necessity if you please. Hard currencies were an insurmountable obstacle to a steady economic growth, so no surprise that such currencies were completely abandoned eventually.
In other words, the modern global economy, given its complexity and the level of interdependency between its parts, simply cannot function on hard currencies as they will wreak havoc in financial settlements throughout the world if we assume for a moment they get introduced again.
Let's set things straight. It had already been tried and didn't work (with gold as money). Any deflationary currency (gold, bitcoin, whatever) would be massively taxing real economy. People who have a lot of tokens representing money would be profiting from just holding them, that is by doing nothing, from people who actually create goods and services, bringing value to the table. Fiat is not perfect but what it is perfect at is taking from idlers a competitive advantage which they otherwise would have just because they happen to be rich.
There is nothing wrong with using a deflationary currency such as gold. The reason why governments moved away from gold is not because it wasn't working. There were 2 issues. Because they needed to buy it on the open market, they could not maintain adequate reserves for what they wanted to spend on, and they had to pay debts with the value that was borrowed. By moving to fiat currencies, they could tax the populace by printing more currency, hence more for whatever spending they wanted to do, and secondly, they could inflate away the value of debts.
Inflation or deflation is only bad if it is unpredictable. Any argument made against deflation can be made against inflation. Why would one borrow money if they would have to pay back more in the future (argument against deflation). Why would one lend money when they are going to get back less in the future (argument against inflation). Why would one buy goods and services when they know they can get it cheaper in the future? If prices are going down because the value of the currency is going up, then one is still transferring the same value to the seller at a lower price. Why would a seller sell a good or service now, when they can sell it in the future for more dollars?
But besides that, crypto does not have to be deflationary. Ether is inflationary.