RE: Wealth Redistribution via Cryptocurrencies
The way I see it, the energy/currency link is not an analogy -- it's reality. Currency/money of all types, no matter what it consists of, is an overlay over the only real unit of account there is, which is energy.
Can't print energy. Thus any currency or money has no effect on the real money, the real unit of account, which is energy. That's why any "created" money just shifts resources from one pocket to another, because the system it sits inside of has not changed one iota.
But inflation usually does so surreptitiously, which is why inflation is so effective at robbing people. They don't see the hand in the pocket. Instead they see higher prices, and because of how our brains work, we see "more expensive" rather than "devalued yardstick."
Regulation is a monopoly. Which is why it is prone to being gamed -- monopoly represents barrier to entry, which is the perfect situation to game -- those being gamed can't avoid it. How's the monopoly that central banks and governments have working out as far as protecting the fiat currency system from being gamed? Monopoly goes from being protective to an intractable, unremovable foe once it gets corrupted.
Best protection against being gamed is no barrier to entry -- if a system gets corrupt, the market goes around it and leaves it behind.
It makes sense as I know how energy can't be destroyed or created, it just changes from one state to another. If we take that as our thesis, then certainly the shift from fiat to crypto is simply a change in the state of the energy that moves value in the universe.
Whether that ends up as a good thing or a bad thing is still determined by our reaction to the shift in energy. Those who favor the old system will fight any change in energy patterns, but the change could be strong enough to overshadow that fight.
If we copy nature, we'll be ok.
Nature doesn't present any barrier to entry. Nature is an "open" competition -- you bring any rig you want to the race.
That's how our money should be. Open competition is what will keep our money honest and stable. Always cracks me up when people say "money is so important that we have to exert a monopoly over it" -- because monopoly is what will guarantee that it will be pimped into oblivion.