Did Henry Ford Predict Bitcoin 100 Years Ago?

in a year 1921, proposed the American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company Henry Ford, construction "Energy Coin”, which he saw at the time that it could form the basis of a new monetary system.

Ford's proposal offers striking similarities with the electronic cash system Peer-to-Peer P2P, described in the Bitcoin working paper (BTC) issued by Satoshi Nakamoto year 2008.

Read also: 50 years later...Why is Bitcoin the new gold standard?

Bitcoin as an energy currency

The New York Tribune published in 4 December 1921, an article explaining a vision Ford To replace gold with an energy currency, he believed, could break the banking elite's grip on global wealth and end wars.

Ford's idea was to build the "world's largest power plant" and create a new currency system based on "power units".

It came in an article Ford:

“Under the energy currency system, the standard would be a certain amount of energy expended for one hour equal to one dollar.

It is just a state of thinking and calculation, in different terms from those of the International Banking Group, to which we are so accustomed to believing that there is no other standard, desirable and possible.”

Ford adds that details about currency values ​​will be worked out as soon as "Congress cares to hear them."

Although Ford He wasn't able to develop his vision for a fully backed currency, except that Bitcoin Apparently, the idea was proven correct a century later.

a year ago 2009, more than . have been created 18.8 Million Bitcoin Through energy-intensive mining, which requires computers to solve increasingly complex math problems.

Mining process sparked proof of work That govern Bitcoin, has been heavily criticized for its alleged environmental impact, a short-sighted claim that ignores the ability of Bitcoin to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Read also: Fifty years since the US dollar was de-linked from gold... so what happened?

Exchange gold and end wars

On the relationship between gold and war, explained Ford:

“The principal evil of gold in its relation to war is the fact that it can be controlled. Breaking this control means stopping the war.”

Likewise, some coin supporters think Bitcoin, that sound financial principles of cryptocurrencies, can eliminate wars, by limiting the ability of the state to finance conflict through inflation.

And while the gold standard makes it difficult for governments to inflate their currency, “international bankers,” he explained FordThey controlled the bulk of the supply of bullion, and the process of controlling and hoarding precious commodities allowed the financial elites to create an active market for money, which flourished in wartime.

It is noteworthy that the United States had abandoned the remains of its link to gold as a standard for determining the value of the dollar, in 1971 During the era of the American president Richard Nixon, who announced at the time that his government would “temporarily” suspend convertibility between dollars and bullion.

And the so-called semi-gold standard continued until a year 1973, with all tariffs linking the dollar to bullion removed by the year 1976.