# ₵Ø1n, Ch. 2: The Next Money

By [edwardrooster](https://paragraph.com/@edwardrooster) · 2022-04-26

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**1914 - 2022 and beyond, Earth**

> **Over time, all systems of the world become empires, and all empires are about money. Gold gave way to dollars.**
> 
> Some say it began when kingdoms gave way to republics.

A long global war separated by a temporary peace. Allies vs. Axis, East vs. West. Past vs. future.

> **The largest victors became co-rulers and rivals for the world. The U.S. and U.S.S.R., republics in name, empires in reality.**
> 
> **The US Dollar was set loose outside to rebuild the world. Everyone used dollars after 1945, even the communists.**

The Soviet Union wanted a better interest rate on their dollars. Italian bankers obliged. Even as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary in 1956, Soviet held dollars were transferred to British banks for safe-keeping. Cold War or not, everybody used dollars.

In 1957, dollar in a European bank account were christened "Eurodollars" (these expatriate dollars are in fact global). As of the 21st century, the (estimated) market is tens of trillions.

**Everyone complains about all the dollars "printed" but the demand for them is insatiable everywhere. In trillions of loans.**

That's the worry, someone's dollar-based loan is another's asset. What if there was money, like gold, that moved as fast as USD?

What if there was money, that was not controlled by empires?

> **ENTER 2009. 100 years after gold exited the financial stage, the something new grew, on the back of a massive network.**
> 
> **An Internet of Money, an empire of the future. The next money.**

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*Originally published on [edwardrooster](https://paragraph.com/@edwardrooster/1n-ch-2-the-next-money)*