The Evolution of Value: Gold, Bitcoin, and the Logic of Credit Currency
「我们更有理由说，货币是人类发明的最伟大的自由工具之一。 在现存社会中，正是货币向穷人开放了一个惊人的选择范围——这个范围甚至比几代人之前向富人开放的范围还要大。」– 哈耶克，《经济控制和集权主义》第七章
“It would be much truer to say that money is one of the greatest instruments of freedom ever invented by man. It is money which in existing society opens an astounding range of choice to the poor man—a range greater than that which not many generations ago was open to the wealthy.” – Chapter 7, Economic Control and Totalitarianism, F. A. Hayek
「今天我们讲货币，但是不仅仅是货币，今天的内容，会颠覆你对历史、政治和宏观经济的大量认知。投资黄金和比特币的观众尤其必看，可能是你以前从来没见过的硬核视角。」– 脑总
“Today we are talking about currency, but it is about so much more than just money. Today’s content will overturn much of what you think you know about history, politics, and macroeconomics. For those of you investing in gold and Bitcoin, this is a must-watch—it offers a hardcore perspective unlike anything you’ve seen before.” — Mr. Brain
Video excerpt from 「黄金和比特币投资必看，颠覆你对货币的认知」, br Mr. Brain.
The Evolution of Value: Gold, Bitcoin, and the Logic of Credit Currency
The history of human civilization is inextricably linked to the history of money. From the physical weight of gold to the digital ledgers of Bitcoin, the way we define and exchange value determines the structure of our societies, the stability of our nations, and the limits of our individual freedom. While many look back at the gold standard with nostalgia—seeing it as a lost era of honest money—a deeper analysis reveals that the transition to credit-based currency was not merely a political choice, but a functional necessity for an industrializing world. Understanding the interplay between gold, credit currency, and Bitcoin requires us to look past simple monetary mechanics and examine the underlying socio-economic logic of zero-sum versus positive-sum games.
The Paradox of the Gold Standard
For centuries, gold served as the ultimate anchor for value. Its scarcity, durability, and physical properties made it an ideal medium of exchange. However, the Industrial Revolution introduced a fatal flaw into the gold standard: a mathematical mismatch between production and currency. As industrial efficiency exploded—with textile production increasing 200-fold and steel output reaching millions of tons—the supply of gold remained relatively static, limited by the slow, linear pace of mining.
This mismatch created a chronic state of deflation. When limited gold must circulate an ever-expanding sea of goods, the price of goods inevitably collapses. This logic provided the backdrop for Marxist critiques of capitalism. Marx observed a crisis of overproduction, where workers could not afford the goods they produced. In reality, this was a monetary crisis; as capitalists hoarded gold (the most rational individual strategy under deflation), social liquidity dried up. Under a gold standard, global trade often became a zero-sum game or mercantilism, where one nation’s gain (an inflow of gold) was another nation’s loss (an outflow of blood). This survivalist competition for finite resources was a significant driver of the imperialist expansions and catastrophic conflicts of the early 20th century.
The Great Leap: Credit Currency as a Positive-Sum Game
The year 1971 marked a pivotal shift in human history when the U.S. dollar officially decoupled from gold. This Nixon Shock unlocked the golden cage that had constrained global productivity. In its place, the world adopted a credit-based system where money is not found in the ground, but created through debt.
Contrary to popular misconceptions that credit currency is merely a tool for inflation, its core function is to allow currency to expand in tandem with economic growth. In this system, loans create deposits. When a bank issues a loan, it is essentially pulling future value into the present. This shift transformed the global economy from a zero-sum struggle into a positive-sum game. In the credit era, the most valuable resource is no longer a yellow metal, but creditworthy borrowers—people and nations with the vision and integrity to turn capital into future productivity. This logic facilitated the post-Cold War era of globalization, where trade allowed nations like China and the U.S. to grow their balance sheets simultaneously, creating a level of shared prosperity impossible under the rigid constraints of gold.
The Rise of Bitcoin and the Preservation of Liberty
If credit currency is so effective, why do we still seek alternatives like gold and Bitcoin? The answer lies in the danger of centralized power. While credit currency releases the shackles of physical scarcity, it grants governments immense power over the monetary tap. This power is frequently abused through the over-expansion of debt, leading to asset bubbles, wealth inequality, and the erosion of privacy.
Bitcoin was born in 2009 as a direct response to the perceived failures of the traditional banking system. Much like the gold bugs of the 19th century, Bitcoin HODLers rely on a fixed supply (21 million coins) to protect their wealth from the printing press. However, as Bitcoin moves from an underground cypherpunk tool to a Wall Street-regulated asset class (through ETFs and institutional custody), it faces the same risk of domestication that gold did in the 20th century. When an asset is locked in institutional vaults, its value becomes a digital entry in a ledger controlled by the state, potentially losing its role as a tool for censorship-resistant freedom.
Conclusion
The tension between gold, credit, and Bitcoin represents a fundamental struggle in the human experience. Credit currency is a brilliant invention that fuels innovation and prevents the stagnation of deflationary cycles. It treats humans as the ultimate asset. Yet, the existence of gold and Bitcoin remains essential as a fail-safe—a reminder that value should not be entirely subject to the whims of political authority. As we move into an increasingly digital and scrutinized future, the challenge for the next generation is to maintain the productive advantages of the credit system while defending the individual liberty that only free money can provide. Freedom, after all, is not just a means to an economic end; it is the end itself.