Since the evolution of money, portability, homogeneity, durability, consistency, convertibility, parity, liquidity are the attributes considered as the most desirable for defining “good money”. Sustainability, although never a serious consideration of any prior art concepts of good money, constitutes one of the foundational elements of the “Ideal Money” of our definition.
In the modern day evolutionary economic theories of sustainable production and consumption it makes sense to ask:
Why shouldn’t money (the medium of exchange, the unit of accounting, and the store of value) that administers and controls such sustainable production and consumption be in itself sustainable?
Well, questions that have no tangible answers are generally avoided. Real sustainable currency ideas remain a fantasy if not a myth. Those fantasies have cropped up in recent times as hyped up Stablecoins, or even as self-proclaimed sustainable currencies, or eco-cryptos.
Supporting a sustainable cause, sustainable investing, or being backed by sustainable assets, per se, does not in itself make a currency sustainable.
A currency does not become immune from losing convertibility and parity just because it is linked to sustainable causes, assets or investing. Even government guarantee alone would not make it ideal.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability is a complex concept. UN World Commission on Environment and Development defines: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
What does it mean to a currency? When the value of a currency arises from integrated tangible economic activities interwoven with the dynamics of the currency in the global marketplace, it may become sustainable. Succeeding rules of “Ideal Money,” particularly “Trustless Guarantee” and “Intrinsic Equity,” explain with further clarity what sustainability would possibly mean to an ideal currency.
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