Money Belongs to the Market, Not the State

 

Who Really Decides What Money Is?

When you strip it down, money has never been about what governments say. It has always been about what people accept, what markets choose, and what traders agree has value. For thousands of years, money wasn’t invented by decree. It emerged naturally, through trial and error, through exchanges that rewarded efficiency and punished inefficiency. Governments didn’t create money. They discovered it—then they hijacked it. Once rulers figured out that controlling money meant controlling the people, they built systems to centralize and monopolize what should have been a free market choice. That’s the story of fiat currency: a con, a sleight of hand, a monopoly dressed up as legitimacy. But history shows us something powerful. When the market decides on money, it works. When governments take over, it eventually collapses. And today, with Bitcoin, we’re seeing the market reclaim its role.

The Free Market Origins of Money

Long before printing presses, banking systems, or “legal tender” laws, humans were already solving the problem of trade. Barter was useful, but flawed—it required the double coincidence of wants. I might have wheat, you might have fish, but if I want tools instead, we’re stuck. So markets innovated. People sought out the most universally desirable, scarce, and durable goods to use as intermediaries. Salt, cattle, seashells, even beads—all functioned as money at some point. Over time, precious metals like gold and silver won out. Why? Because they carried the best traits: scarcity, portability, divisibility, and wide acceptance. Carl Menger, the Austrian economist, explained this process clearly. Money wasn’t designed; it emerged spontaneously out of countless voluntary transactions. No king, emperor, or parliament invented money. The market did. It was a bottom-up process—order from the chaos of human need.

The Usurpation: How Governments Seized Control

So where did it go wrong? At some point, governments realized money wasn’t just a tool for trade—it was a tool for power. If they could monopolize the issuance of money, they could extract wealth without outright taxation. The Romans clipped coins, shaving metal off the edges while still calling them full value. Medieval kings debased currencies by mixing in cheaper metals. Central banks were introduced not as neutral protectors, but as cartel organizers—institutions designed to ensure the state’s control over money. The modern betrayal came with the Gold Standard. For a time, gold anchored the system, giving people confidence. But slowly, governments watered it down. In 1944, Bretton Woods made the U.S. dollar the global reserve currency, supposedly backed by gold. By 1971, Nixon ended even that pretense. The link between money and real value was severed. From that point on, money was no longer chosen by markets. It was dictated by governments. And instead of being a neutral measuring stick, it became a political tool.

Fiat Currency: The Illusion of Authority

“Legal tender” sounds official, but it really means this: you are forced by law to accept government paper as money. If fiat currency were truly strong, it wouldn’t need laws. People would accept it naturally, the way they once accepted gold or silver. But fiat is fragile. Its value relies on confidence, and confidence can be broken. Inflation is the proof. Every dollar printed beyond productivity dilutes the existing supply. It’s a hidden tax, slowly stealing purchasing power. Over decades, wages stagnate, savings erode, and people work harder for less real wealth. Fiat doesn’t survive because of trust—it survives because of force. Regulations, capital controls, and taxation keep people trapped inside the system. But just as history shows, people eventually find their exit. Every fiat currency in history has failed. None have survived the market’s ultimate judgment.

Bitcoin: The Free Market Strikes Back

Enter Bitcoin. Nobody asked permission to create it. Nobody decreed its value. Nobody forced its adoption. Instead, the market discovered it, tested it, and began using it because it solved problems fiat couldn’t. Bitcoin is the first money in centuries that wasn’t imposed from the top down. It emerged organically, like gold, from a free market process. Its properties—fixed supply, decentralization, transparency, portability—make it the most saleable good in the digital age. This is what terrifies governments and central banks. Bitcoin doesn’t ask them for validation. It doesn’t need them to declare it “legal tender.” It thrives because the market chose it. One peer-to-peer transaction at a time, Bitcoin grew into the hardest money humanity has ever seen.

Why the Market Always Wins in the End

The track record is undeniable. Fiat systems rise, governments abuse them, and they collapse. The denarius, the Weimar mark, the Zimbabwe dollar—all failed because rulers thought they could override the laws of economics. But the market has a memory. It gravitates back to sound money. Gold lasted thousands of years not because kings commanded it, but because the people trusted it. Bitcoin carries that same resilience. It is sound money for the digital era, chosen not by decree but by merit. Governments can fight it, regulate it, even ban it. But they cannot kill it, because they cannot kill the market’s desire for honest money.

Conclusion: Returning to Honest Money

Money has always belonged to the market. Governments didn’t create it, they just hijacked it. Fiat is a temporary distortion—a long detour from the natural evolution of exchange. But detours don’t last forever. Bitcoin is the free market striking back. It is proof that people, when given a choice, will always seek out the best form of money. For the first time in generations, humanity has an exit from the monetary monopoly. The market is speaking again, and it is saying loudly: we choose Bitcoin.