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money is the least interesting thing in the world

art is the most interesting thing in the world

a few thoughts on fungibility and time
money is uninteresting - that’s a design requirement, not a normative claim

we all have different interests, and money is the tool we use to navigate these

when money is intrinsically uninteresting we can all get on to the good stuff of life
btw it’s also uninteresting in the same way air is uninteresting, right up until you don’t have enough of it

but personal finance is not the focus of this thread
when i say money im talking about the actual fungible stuff, not wealth that’s held in stocks etc

money facilitates exchange between people who don’t need to know or trust each other

a good money does job not only today but also over time
think of it like a meeting vs an email

meetings only work when all participants are available

emails can be sent whenever and read whenever

email is async - allows much greater flexibility for coordination but sacrifices the human context
if im going to have a meeting, i want it to be over coffee, drinks, or dinner, with old trusted friends or exciting news ones

a non-fungible interaction, full of human context
email gets the job done without needing to share the same calendar block -> fewer demands on the other party

money is also about low trust interactions, and works best when these transactions work across time -> fewer demands on the other party
so we have life in the present, full of context and emotion

we have the unknown future, but with a good fungible money we can time warp value there

where does art fit in?
art is created in a certain context, which is non-fungible and in this way more like a steak dinner than an email

but it is also asynchronous - you usually don’t have to be there at the creation to enjoy it
beyond influencing culture in the short run, one of the main purposes of art is to provide cultural artifacts that can be carried forward through time

we understand more about the Renaissance thanks to the artifacts left behind by the masters
by operating on the same medium as long term money, NFTs provide a crucial link between long term culture and long term value

this is why I’m so excited about what we are building here
so to recap:

steak dinner - high context, short term. the stuff that makes a life

sound money - low context, long term. the stuff that builds the future

art - high context, long term. the culture that endures

//
ps the astute reader will notice a missing piece - low context, short term

this is the hardest to understand bc it’s the water we’re swimming in, so we barely notice it

it’s upstream of consumerism, indebtedness, make-work jobs, and much more

but that’s for another day
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6529 @punk6529 · Apr 6, 2022
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nice thread