Which Money Is Crazier: The U.S. Dollar or Bitcoin?

Money For the Rest of Us

We compare the U.S. dollar with Bitcoin on their key attributes to determine which is better for transactions and preserving wealth, which is most absurd and which has serious flaws.

Topics covered include:

• How are new U.S. Dollars and Bitcoin created
• How much has the supply of each currency grown
• How both the dollar and Bitcoin have had rule changes
• Why Bitcoin transactions are faster than non-cash U.S. dollar transactions
• Why both the dollar and Bitcoin require add-on layers to facilitate transactions
• How tax treatment of a currency can encourage or discourage its use for payments
• Why divisibility is a critical attribute of any currency
• Why Bitcoin has been as volatile as the Russian ruble
• Why Bitcoin is energy inefficient while having built-in incentives to use renewable energy
• What will determine the long-term viability of Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar

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Show Notes

Federal Reserve Statistical Release: H.4.1 Factors Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions and Condition Statement of Federal Reserve Banks, August 19, 2021

Check Processing—Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Gold Reserve Act of 1934—Federal Reserve History

Creation of the Bretton Woods System—Federal Reserve History

Financial Accounting Manual for Federal Reserve Banks, July 2021: Chapter 5. Federal Reserve Notes—Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Financial Statements: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; As of and for the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 and Independent Auditors’ Report

A Complete Guide to Understanding and Protecting Against Inflation—Money For the Rest of Us

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto—Bitcoin

What is a fork?—Coinbase

Mapping the Major Bitcoin Forks by Ashley Viens—Visual Capitalist

Total Circulating Bitcoin Chart—Blockchain

There’s Enough Bitcoin For Everyone by Paul Opoku—Nasdaq

Lightning Network: Scalable, Instant Bitcoin/Blockchain Transactions

Crypto Crime Summarized: Scams and Darknet Markets Dominated 2020 by Revenue, But Ransomware Is the Bigger Story—Chainalysis

Americans' Spending on Illicit Drugs Nears $150 Billion Annually; Appears to Rival What Is Spent on Alcohol by Beau Kilmer—RAND Corporation

39% of PoW mining is powered by renewables – Cambridge University Cryptoasset study by Gareth Jenkinson—The Daily Chain

Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index—Digiconomist

The Bitcoin vs Visa Electricity Consumption Fallacy by Carlos Domingo—Hacker Noon

El Salvador Readies Bitcoin Rollout With 200 ATMs for Conversion by Michael D McDonald—Bloomberg

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