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Meta-currencies -- an introduction to a new emerging trend


Defining the problem
Money as a standard is a relatively new invention in human history.

There was no medium of exchange per se back then but rather need-driven assumed-value goods and services that people exchanged.

From the moment money was invented they were readily adopted and soon after institutionalised to a degree we are perceiving them as a given. The institution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institution) became so strong that the post-1973 transformation of all currencies into fiat ones has no effect on it (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/nixon-shock).

Blockchain invention did manage to initiate the deconstruction of the institution of money. Its profound benefits found fertile ground within societies and new ideas flourished.

The state-control-free global version of money emerged and with it, a new form of community-based rather than a central issuing authority was introduced. Decentralised forms of clearing systems based on new approaches also emerged.

Innovation after innovation for a while all were going the “right” direction until innovators got overwhelmed by the undertaking as State after state start having allergic reactions towards a potential threat to its currency control.

We currently experiencing a fragile equilibrium where the new and the old exchange principal ideas. We witness from the one side States introducing their own digital currencies and on the other side the emergence of fiat-currency-anchored “stable” coins. What oxymorons!

To the dismay of innovators and thinkers, despite the hype surrounding the new, the old “ways” are winning the battle. The trap of “stable” coins that emerged as a solution to digital assets’ price volatility is a massive step backwards.

Stable coins have no chance of becoming mainstream or replacing state currencies and unfortunately, so do all existing crypto assets despite their immense potential.

Test the concept yourself. Can you think international trade happening without fiat currencies in the near future? Well, the short answer for the majority of realists is no.

As it happens, I am a dreamer, an innovator and an optimist. Definitely in the minority. So, I was wondering, what if one really wanted to change the existing fiat money with something that does not have their deficiencies (https://www.financialsense.com/contributors/ron-hera/fifteen-fundamental-problems-with-fiat-currencies). Would he really be creating crypto assets following the same anachronistic fiat currency framework or would he rethink the whole idea?

Gentlemen, the maths behind state needs for currency control are well documented. So are the actual monetary needs of domestic and international B2B trade, that of B2C commerce and e-commerce as well as the human “needs” expressed in predetermined behavioural patterns towards money.

What is working and the root causes of the problems are exhaustively documented. We know how much the existing infrastructure that supports the creation, the circulation, the transaction mediums and the exchange of money cost humanity and the effects it has on a societal level. Just add the charges of the Banking sector, the trade insurance companies and the Schemes to get an idea. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/global-banking-annual-review

We know as well the power imbalance the existing legislation framework defining payments creates and the social impact that is derived by the fact.

A probable solution
So, if one was serious about redesigning money from scratch what their characteristics would be?

Well, there are the profound bits and the non-obvious ones.

Fundamentally, any meta-currency framework should be compliant with existing ideas about money to avoid institutional friction https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/padm.12099 on both a societal and regulatory levels while the benefits deriving from their new characteristics should be easily understood by the majority.

The following list addresses both points and is presented in order or perceived importance by the author.

• Fulfilling its role as a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account is paramount as these characteristics were developed by basic societal needs over the aeons

• Mobile to mobile transactions and IoT to mobile ones without the use of POS or e-POS devices as well human-action-free transactions should become through its use the new medium of exchange norm

• Storing of its value should be based on blockchain level e-wallets while its value itself should be backed by assets not affected by State monetary policies, the markets, artificial or actual supply shortages, or other assets (i.e. bitcoin, commodities etc.) price fluctuations. Equally significant would be the management of its supply (liquidity) and distribution process. This is monopolised at present by the Banking system with all its known deficiencies and is one of the main causes of systemic inflation. The management of its liquidity and distribution process should be automated and AI-based through systemic untampered price stabilisation mechanism and away from human sentimental decision making and single-State fiscal policies

• Units of account traditionally measure the relative value of goods and services and hence any assets/securities this meta-currency will be pegged against. This by default means that any meta-currency should be a derivative and more specifically a future. As such its spot value at the point of ownership should reflect its future price.

• It should be universally accepted forms of security (ideally hybrid one) with its value compared to any fiat one increasing constantly to counteract inflation without the necessitation of an interest rate mechanism in order to be sharia law compatible as well.

• It should be able to support both closed and open-loop economies (see article on the topic). The significance of the former is that it will decouple the connection between currency value and GDP which is the root cause of currency value manipulation by States

• It should also be exchangeable with any other fiat currency till it renders them useless.

• It should be digital in order to be utilised by any device anywhere on the globe reducing thus the cost of issuance and artificially reduced liquidity.

• It should be doing the above more efficiently ideally using an advanced blockchain protocol and with less cost than the processes supporting the use of fiat money, it is trying to replace. Transaction infrastructure monopolies and the existing plethora of mediators should be reduced this way to the absolute minimum

• Finally, it should allow mining. The authors favourite type is use-based smart mining. This entails the disparagement of short-term ownership, its passive use as a safe haven (that it can be due to its warranty value increases) and the incentivised provision of liquidity, reduction of transaction-risk and infrastructure to the system with free assets

There are some additional debatable characteristics like the anonymity of ownership which I think any designer of future forms of mediums of exchange should allow being decided by the majority rather than assuming future institutional trends.

Backwards compatibility also with existing norms i.e., retaining a physical form is equally debatable. It is the author's belief that by the time any such medium will replace existing fiat currencies, the old money based institutionalised ideas supporting physical forms will have weakened significantly as all future generations are expecting to transact in a cashless manner.

Epilogue:
It took SN2 a year and endless FINTECH innovation beforehand like 2DVVI, Closed Loop Economies, the u-paid-m method etc. but msc1 is now a reality. It is the first known attempt to achieve all of the above with the exception of anonymity which should be decided by its users at a later stage provided the asset is as successful as expected.