Curt, I guess you’re coming at it from the cryptocurrency angle?

I am working on creating a blockchain-based IOU system, Sikoba. So yes I can very well imagine how, in times of crisis, this type of blockchain could replace the banking system to some, even large degree. It is one of its use cases. In Venezuela, the IOUs would obviously have to be expressed in USD, not in VEF. But apart from blockchain technology, Sikoba has little in common with cryptocurrencies.

In times of extreme crisis or war, trust breaks down and using IOUs will no longer work. People start using tangible commodities for payment. For example, coffee and cigarettes were used during WWII. And now we have cryptocurrencies that can be used for that purpose. But once the crisis is over, economies naturally revert to credit. Credit, which is nothing else than trust in an economic sense, is at the core of any advanced human economy.

Maybe also a reminder that even under the gold standard, the vast majority of bank money was not covered by gold. So to those who think that we could have some kind of crypto-based monetary system, like we had a gold-based one before, my answer is: the gold standard did not work because of gold, but despite gold (might be worth writing an article about this…)

Further reading: Examples of IOU economy: Ireland, 1970