Hasn't the british pound been around though, for hundreds of years?
Something to ponder: why is it named the 'pound'?
Good question.
A pound of sterling silver. So a pound of silver today would cost about $340 ($21.25/oz* 16 oz). The pound is not worth $340 US dollars. :-)
still, it seems the pound is still around, so people that say "every fiat dies" aren't being totally accurate.
Just no. The pound is no longer a pound. It is now a fiat currency. Accordingly, the fact that there is still something called the pound in monetary use, cannot be used as an example of a fiat currency lasting a long time.
Exactly. Calling it the same name does not mean it is related to the original currency in any important way. Just another soon to be worthless fiat currency.
Inflation in the UK has caused the british pound to lose value verses the value of silver. It is still the same currency, as if you had a bank note from several years ago you could still tender it for payment today.
But when it stands for one pound of sterling silver, and then doesn't and is worth 0.5% of a pound of silver, then is it really the same currency? If I photocopy a GBP note, is it still a pound?
If you photocopy a GBP note then it would be a worthless counterfit. Like any currency inflation has decreased the value of the British pound. If you were to measure a the british pound (or any other major currency that has been around for 200+ years) by what it buys in terms of standard of living then inflation has not taken as bad of an effect. In other words, if you were to live the same way that one lived 100 years ago, then it would not take that much more money to have the same living standards.
The problem is when it has no value. All paper currencies become completely worthless within an average of 27 years.
So a currency can survive hundreds of years if it becomes a receipt that is redeemable for less and less amount real money.
But once it stops being backed by real money at all, a 'fiat' currency it's game over, completely worthless within 50 years.
having said that no one keeps there saveing in fiat over 30 years, they go into property or shares.
I think there is some confusion between real wealth and day to day transactional needs.
When you start earning over a certain amount you soon realise that you will be going backwards by leaving your savings in FIAT. So you are forced to invest esle where.
This is something some BTC'rs miss they are the same as LTC on GOX, eg BTC on amazom/ebay whatevs.
The real wealth is not there, its in currency swaps, balancing the nightly, interbank reconciliation, buying houses, project fiance etc, of about minimum $100M amounts, and more routinely $1+ billion amounts.
This is why things like peercoin will likely take the market.
You know how BTC'rs struggle to communicate to the FIAT masses...
Its like this trying to communicate to BTC'rs and most other crypto's about where the value really is.
This is largely because most are used to small transactions, eg buying everyday needs.
Most don't deal with capital raising and debt markets, interbank issues and currency swaps.
the closet most get to a big purchase is a house.