Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the author of numerous books including The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and most recently, the Square and the Tower: Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook, and Michael Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk and coauthor of two books on crypto, The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine, discuss the history of money and the macro environment for Bitcoin. We cover:

how they became involved in crypto
historically, what has made things money, or how people have decided that something is money
the difficulty of managing fiat currency
modern monetary theory and the role of the state in the financial system
Satoshi’s message in BTC’s genesis block and what that indicates about Satoshi's intentions with Bitcoin
whether a more transparent, blockchain-based financial system could eventually lead to a new financial order
how Bitcoin behaves like an option on digital gold, and when it will behave like digital gold
whether Bitcoin is simply a reversion to previous forms of money that weren’t controlled by the state
how crypto/blockchain and fintech innovation from startups and the Chinese government will affect the USD
how a hypothetical war between the US and China would affect the dollar's dominance
how China's DCEP could disintermediate banks
how Bitcoin fits into all of the different macro conditions facing the global economy
whether Libra is going to be the initial gateway getting people into our digital currency world
how well the recovery from coronavirus will go, and how it will affect the development of the crypto space in the near-term

Thank you to our sponsors!

Tezos: https://tquorum.com/

Episode links:

Niall Ferguson: http://www.niallferguson.com

The Ascent of Money: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302900/the-ascent-of-money-by-niall-ferguson/

Michael Casey: https://www.michaeljcasey.com

Money Reimagined: https://www.coindesk.com/tag/money-reimagined

The Age of Cryptocurrency: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551

The first episode in the Why Bitcoin Now series: Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on 'the Single Greatest Brand' ofo the Last 10 Years: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/

How Niall got into Bitcoin:

http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/finance-economics/bitcoin-may-go-pop-but-its-revolution-will-go-on

Niall and Michael at Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/disruption-money-and-a-world-of-change-feat-niall-ferguson

Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya, who believes Bitcoin is a hedge on everything blowing up: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/

Carlota Perez at CoinDesk's Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/video/carlota-perez-on-blockchains-and-technological-revolutions

Unchained interview about the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/

Unchained interview with Christopher Giancarlo about a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/

Unconfirmed episode with Michael about Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/

Unchained episode with a co-creator of Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/

Why Bitcoin Now: Michael Casey and Niall Ferguson on How Bitcoin Fits in the History of Money - Ep.181