{"id":3989,"date":"2026-09-11T14:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/?p=3989"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:29:12","slug":"bitcoin-isnt-money-says-swedens-riksbank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/bitcoin-isnt-money-says-swedens-riksbank\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Isn’t Money, Says Representative for the Fiat-Issuing Riksbank"},"content":{"rendered":"

No explanation, no analysis, no evidence needed.

In a speech Wednesday at the Ekonomiska museet<\/a> in Stockholm, Anna Seim (deputy governor of the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank) spoke at length about money<\/a>. Her intricate description<\/a> of the banking system is good and insightful \u2014 though not for the reasons you’d expect \u2014 and Bitcoiners can learn a lot from it about the monetary system we’re here to supplant.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What She Said About Bitcoin Was Both Shocking and Astonishing

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin is so unimportant <\/a>to the establishment that it can be denounced by mere words.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After briefly describing the three functions of money we’re used to from economics textbooks and Bitcoin books alike \u2014 medium of exchange, store of value, unit of account; though, interestingly, she inverts the order by putting store of value at the top<\/a> \u2014 she brushes bitcoin aside in one short sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing the topic by saying that the digital-money split between private and public institutions is heavily discussed these days, she doesn’t want to talk about bitcoin, “Because it can’t be classified as money according to any of the three criteria above.” <\/strong>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Anna Seim, “What is money?<\/a>” Sept 9, 2026 (p. 7\/8), speech at Ekonomiska museet in Stockholm.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiat and its money-printing mechanism she then describes expertly and at length: bank money is just made up, created when banks make loans; fiat money is backed by nothing but confidence in the central bank and the wider economy; central banks are tasked with keeping pricing rising “at a moderately high level.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Straight from the horse’s mouth: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cFiat money has no intrinsic value but derives its value from being accepted as a medium of exchange\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money\u2019s underlying \u201ccommodity\u201d has gone from gold to confidence; \u201cit contains information about with whom value is to be found, and how much.”

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She brings up an exciting paradox in the use of money, using the age-old economics example (harking back to Adam Smith) of a baker selling bread. He’s paid with money, which functions as evidence<\/em> that the baker has contributed something valuable to society; he can go on and use the money in exchange for other goods and services.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While money is<\/em> a record-keeping device \u2014 a record of past value created and supplied (see, for instance, the classic article in monetary economics, \u2018Money is Memory<\/a>\u2019) \u2014 it also<\/em> allows you to forget its history: The next guy in the monetary line doesn\u2019t need to know what good or service the previous person supplied the current holder.<\/strong>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe money itself is enough evidence of value.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…or at least, that’s how money is supposed<\/em> to work. In the age of KYC (know-your-customer) and excessive (yet impotent) anti-money laundering efforts<\/a>, permissioned money<\/a> in the banking system certainly<\/em> does not forget its history. (Bitcoin doesn’t really do this either<\/em>, as evidenced by the recent hacks\/heists<\/a> and the very public movement<\/a> of funds.)

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes money work in the end is all about trust, she admits. \u201cNew types of money, new technologies and new issuers mean we must find new ways of establishing and maintaining that trust.”

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True. And that trust is betrayed, repeatedly. Satoshi said so at the start<\/a> (Letters 10:15-18<\/a>), and we’re saying so right now<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Seim, deputy governor at the Riksbank, spoke at length about money on Wednesday before an audience at the Ekonomiska museet in Stockholm. She denounced bitcoin in a few sentences, then proceeded accidentally to explain all ways in which it is urgently needed. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[80,72,86],"class_list":["post-3989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monetary-economics","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoiners","tag-central-banks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3989"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4001,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989\/revisions\/4001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btchel.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}