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The collapse of the Roman Empire, Currency devaluation, and Bitcoin.

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." - Ariel Durant

Roman Empire & Bitcoin

A week ago, all of a sudden Bitcoin Twitter was full of Roman Empire – -Bitcoin tweets. This all was triggered by a Washington Post article and a new social media trend prompting women to ask the men in their lives how often they think about ancient Rome revealing that it crosses the minds of many men on a weekly basis. Even daily. Or more — to the surprise and confusion of their loved ones.

Washington Post - How often do men think about ancient Rome? Quite frequently, it seems.
Why are Bitcoiners talking about the collapse of the Roman Empire? Well, it turns out humans haven’t changed much over the last 1500 years and some of their monetary policies are very similar to today…
 

I quote btcSalvation on Twitter:

“A Brief Summary:
The Roman Empire was known for its irrefutable army, which was a large contributor to their successful uprising and conquering of most of the known world.
Rome became a hub for global trade and the Romans accumulated great wealth from their successful economy.
The primary coin used during the Empire was the denarius which was approx. ~1 day’s wage, made from pure silver.
The Empire was limited to the amount of denarii that could be minted based on the amount of revenue generated from trade.
As the Empire expanded it demanded more financial resources. Eventually, it was more than they could afford.
Empire officials began debasing their currency by decreasing the amount of silver in the denarius.
Near the end of the Empire, the denarius only had ~0.5% silver. (see picture below)
This resulted in a hyperinflation in the Roman economy. The cost of goods and services kept multiplying, 2x, 5x, 10x…
The Empire proceeded with higher and higher taxes to sustain governance. Trade became stagnant and internal conflicts arose.
Civil wars erupted and enemies of the Empire invaded.
 
By 476 A.D. the Western Roman Empire had officially collapsed.”
debasement of the denarius
I do think quite frequently a lot about the most powerful empire in human history and how their reign ended due to the extreme, rapid devaluation of their currency. (see the photo above)
We wouldn’t still be reading Plato and Aristotle if humanity today was different from 2500 years ago.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
 
The Roman Empire dramatically shifted power away from representative democracy to centralized imperial authority, with the emperor holding the most power. For example, under Augustus’s reign, emperors gained the ability to introduce and veto laws, as well as command the army.  Read more on Rome’s Transition from Republic to Empire:

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/romes-transition-republic-empire/

Fineness of early roman imperial silver coins
The Rise and Fall of the Dollar

Rome Empire, Currency devaluation Bitcoin

Augustus also brought peace and stability to the Roman Empire which correlates to Bitcoin bringing security and transparency. Bitcoin’s the potential to reshape the financial landscape by challenging the centralized banking systems, giving the power back to the people that Augustus took power away from.

In the end, Roman emperors devalued the silver denarius to fund their extravagant spending. Bitcoin, with its capped supply and decentralized nature, could have offered a more stable form of currency, immune to debasement.

If want to learn more on this topic, read this well-written article:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/hard-money-hyperinflation-roman-empire 
or his tweet:

https://twitter.com/drew_macmartin/status/1418927516904009738

The Roman Empire wouldn’t have fallen under a Bitcoin standard. However, if the Roman People had had Bitcoin, there wouldn’t have been a Roman Empire to collapse.

If you want to read some books on this topic I highly recommend:
– The history of the decline & fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
– The Corrupting Sea by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell
– The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter

“The improvement of the revenue was committed to Alexander, a subtle scribe, long practised in the fraud and oppression of the Byzantine schools, and whose name of Psalliction, the scissors, was drawn from the dexterous artifice with which he reduced the size without defacing the figure, of the gold coin. ” Edward Gibbon

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That’s it for today!

My savings account: Bitcoin

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. As of the time of posting, the writer(s) may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency, as all investments contain risk. All opinions expressed in these articles are my own and are in no way a reflection of the views of the used sources.

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