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Score the Money

"Sound money" isn't one thing — it's a set of properties. Judge each form of money yourself, then see how your verdict compares. You'll learn the framework by using it.

"What does money actually need to do its job — and which of these forms does it best?"

There are no trick answers here

The assessments below reflect a widely-taught framework, but reasonable people weigh these properties differently — that's the point of judging for yourself. Notice that no historical form scores "high" on everything, and that even strong forms carry real weaknesses. Bitcoin is rated honestly: high on scarcity and divisibility, but only medium on fungibility (its ledger is public, so coins can be traced) and on acceptability (still far from universal). A property checklist is a useful lens, not the whole story.

The framework & sources

Where this comes from

The six properties (scarcity, durability, portability, divisibility, fungibility, acceptability) are the standard characteristics-of-money framework taught in economics and used in BSA's Curious Path, Module 1. Historical facts referenced (first standardized coins in Lydia ~600 BCE; the cowrie-shell trade; the end of dollar–gold convertibility in 1971) are covered with sources on the companion History of Money page. Bitcoin's 21-million supply cap and 1e-8 divisibility ("satoshis") are protocol facts (Bitcoin developer docs). Education, not financial advice.