There is an island in the Pacific called Yap that uses circular stones as currency. The stones are too large to move so the ownership of the stones is passed by word of mouth to transact business http://ow.ly/LxJV30mpIqe pic.twitter.com/XhwqSVBkiH
This characterizes only the last, pathological stage of the Rai collectibles that had been inflated -- including literally in their size -- by more advanced European & Chinese tools and shipping. The traditional Rai stones were much smaller, held by owners, carried on poles.pic.twitter.com/ZnnMQhQp4G
![Blakk Bull [₿🔑⚡]](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1039230970447126528/7Xtqe4NZ_normal.jpg)
-
-
Yap was formed in a geologically unusual way which resulted in it lacking a stone common elsewhere: limestone. Obtained from islands many hundreds of km away on voyages where about half the men were lost. Limestone was unforgeably costly on Yap, like jade elsewhere.
-
Unforgeable that is until Eurasian tech was brought in. Among the post-contact inflators was David O'Keefe, who used industrial-revolution-era steel tools to quarry the stones and Chinese ships to transport them safely & en masse to Yap. Still done today for the tourist market.pic.twitter.com/DYCZiIZK1x
-
In contrast to trust-minimized, censorship-resistant cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the word-of-mouth "ledger" system was not trust-minimized and easily abused. German colonizers effectively confiscated the post-O'Keefe monster stones by painting German crosses on them.
- 2 more replies
New conversation -
-
-
How people transported monies in ancient days tended to inadvertently serve as a status symbol, or (guessing here) heuristic to distinguish between various tribes by their transportation techniques. Wealth as status symbols seemed to emerge on accident, like status of visa-black.
-
Transport costs, on top of collecting or mining costs, were commonly a big part of unforgeable costliness, i.e. the securely limited supply curve. Another example is the Yurok, who used seashells that originated over two thousand kilometers up the coast: https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/conflict-and-collectibles-among-yurok_87.html …
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
But the way to inflate Rai Stones wouldn't be to make them smaller? In the sense of debasing them as currency...
-
The value of Rai stones was judged as being proportional to their size, since they were all made out of the same rare unmixable stone. Post-contact this worked much less well but they couldn't find a better way of estimating their value.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Even stones can be inflated? Math might be the only immutable enforcer of units.
-
The real unforgeable and limited product is energy.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Big blockers causing trouble again
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Local sense of time & energy was destroyed by European/Chinese systems not by narrow sense of currency To affect fundamental change, Big question is can Bitcoin be a system rather than currency
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Interesting. I didn’t know inflation had this effect on rai stones!
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.