13-8a2.1 Money is the present good par excellence

Related:

• 3-1a4b5.1 Money can be anything—but money will not be everything
• 5-1b1 Invest in preparedness. Be redundant and resourceful in every aspect. Minimize opportunity cost to achieve great things.
• 13-1a3a2e2 The introduction of money creates the money market wherein everything can be exchanged for anything in the economy
• 13-5b2 Money is usable in every line of production
• 13-5b2.1 Saving (in money) can literally save you
• 13-9a All goods are somewhat substitutable for one another thanks to money

E.g.,

• The Coastal Journal on crypto and wildcat banking (20260205)
  • In crypto, the run doesn’t take months; it can happen in weeks (see also Mert on internet money and speed)
  • A $10fromadistantorquestionablebankmightbeworth$9.20—or less. Trust, distance, and credibility showed up directly in price.
    • The wildcat economy priced credit risk into money itself, the same way crypto markets price narrative into tokens, stablecoins, and “cash-like” claims.
  • Crypto has rebuilt the same mismatch: “you can exit anytime” resting on assets that cannot all be liquidated safely at once.
  • It’s important to note that the market cap doesn’t represent a tangible pile of money. Instead, it’s more akin to a price tag on a an item. It doesn’t necessarily imply that the actual pile of dollars is there or that you could sell the entire item at that price.
    • <> 5-2 What counts cannot be counted
  • Any system that issues liabilities redeemable at par, on demand, is inherently vulnerable to runs. In the 1800s, those liabilities took the form of banknotes and deposits promising redemption in gold or silver. When confidence eroded, redemption demands surged faster than assets could be liquidated, and otherwise solvent institutions failed not because their assets were worthless, but because their liabilities were callable immediately.
    • <> it’s not that bitcoin will make fractional reserve banking obsolete, or that fractional reserve banking or fiat money per se is bad—it’s just that when you allow fractional reserve banking, something like run will be inevitable
      • <> relate with Eric Voskuildevelop
  • The Run Dynamics
    1. The most obvious runnable liability in the crypto system is the stablecoin.
       • Stablecoins now represent roughly $311 billion in outstanding liabilities. USDT and USDC issuers account for more than four-fifths of the system’s “cash layer.”
    2. Crypto-backed borrowing
       • Crypto-backed loans transform volatile tokens into spendable dollars
         • Recent data indicates that the total value of outstanding crypto loans reached a record high of approximately $7.36billioninlate2025,withprojectionssuggestingthattheplatformmarketsizewillgrowto$12.69 billion by the end of 2026.
    3. Spot ETFs convert crypto flows into mainstream portfolio adjustments.
       • Corporate proxies—exchanges, miners, companies with concentrated crypto treasuries—amplify volatility through equity indices.
         • <> 2-1e Everything is connected in a complex way, and you can’t get network effects without correlation
           • Stablecoin reserve management intersects with short-term funding markets.
           • Consumers and small businesses absorb losses as crypto-backed borrowing unwinds.