Ask HN: What are the real drawbacks of an energy based currency?
Here's the thing. I think it's bupkis. We live in a global economy. The fundamental unit of exchange in nature is energy. Energy is required to change the state of all matter (either it's consumed or released). Energy is what matters when all is said and done for human survival. Why isn't energy or rather energy back currency the global currency of the day? I know things like electricity contracts and other energy derivatives exist but really energy is required for everything. I think by also creating intelligent derivatives of energy this currency can also assess environmental impacts. Energy is fundamental to our survival from food, to electricity, to heating and cooling to all the energy required to make all the good we consume.
Even cryptocurrencies are fundamentally derivatives of energy...and they consume a hell of a lot of it.
The biggest thing I can think of is, how does energy measure human creativity and ingenuity. The answer I have is, honestly current money doesn't do a great job of that and we let the "market" decide that anyway.
There's lot's of flaws or shortcomings I haven't considered. At the risk of starting a brutal heavily opinion based flame war, please critique and discuss!
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 24.2 ms ] threadAn "energy-based currency system" is either a barter system that barters various energy-related commodities, or it's just as arbitrary as the USD, with the arbitrariness being set by whoever dictates standard conversion rates between different forms of actual and potential energy.
I suppose you could give them batteries, but now you're back to tying it to a physical good, one which has some irritating problems like toxicity and losing the charge over time. You're probably better off choosing some arbitrary material that's in demand, which is how gold and silver got into use.