Money Talks

Thursday, May 13, 2021Tales from the Crypt Is Bitcoin and its sister digital currencies really money? Money represents work and earnings on that work or skill. It has 3 functions. It’s a medium of exchange. You can buy stuff with it-- trade it for food, housing, clothing, etc. Certainly, we are hearing more and more about cryptocurrency being accepted as a form of payment.Money is also a store of value. The money I make today doesn’t have to be spent today. I can put it in the bank or under my mattress and store those earnings for another day. Okay, so crypto qualifies here.Money is also a unit of account. That means the number of dollars, euros, renminbi, required to purchase something has meaning. When I travel overseas and find myself looking at price tags in another country, I’m clueless. They have no meaning to me, but prices in dollars and cents help me to peg a value on a good or service. Wow! That’s a good deal. Or, wow! That’s expensive. This is where crypto falters. Valuations fluctuate so