John Nash, the legendary mathematician, may be the true architect of Bitcoin. Eighteen key attributes link Nash's work in game theory, cryptography, and decentralized systems to Bitcoin. The book, Bitcoin and Nash Equilibrium, reshapes our understanding of Bitcoin's intent and its impact on global monetary systems.
The biography explores his genius, twenty-five illness and his recovery. Nash won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, for his discovery of the Nash Equilibrium. During his recovery, Nash envisioned an "asymptotically ideal money," an immortal equilibrium, immune to political manipulation, which aligns with Bitcoin's design. Bitcoin's self-sustaining economic model reflects Nash's ideals and is challenging fiat currencies with spectacular, ratcheting success.
Eighteen Nash–Nakamoto Signature Attributes connect Nash's work and Bitcoin. Could the quiet, lone genius who reshaped game theory and economic thought also be Bitcoin’s creator? If the thesis is accurate, understanding Bitcoin and The Nash Equilibrium is a vital narrative to navigate the growing debt supercycle and financial instability.
Gold which is a step to honesty.[1]
John Nash
[1] Nash, John F. Ideal Money and The Motivation for Savings and Thrift, The Oxford Union, video published 2015 FEB 24, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUyCO3FXHS4&t=10s, 0:18-0:21
1995, John Nash wrote:
Gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation. This began most recognizably, with the rejection of politically oriented thinking at essentially a hopeless waste of intellectual effort.[3]
[3] John Forbes Nash Jr., autobiography, Les Prix Nobel (The Nobel Prizes), 1994, ed. T. Frangsmyr, Stockholm: Nobel Foundation (1995).
[T]he standardization of the value of the international money unit, would remove, where it would be used, the political roles of the "grand pardoners", the state authorities that can forgive the debts of debtors including, particularly, those of themselves.[6]
John Nash, Ideal Money, 2002
[6] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, 2002 DEC, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/money.dec.2002.bi.rtf
[T]he one course in Economics that I took as a college student was called “International Economics” and it was taught by a distinguished professor who happened to have come from Austria (the country famous for “Austrian” economists).[7]
John Nash, 2007
[7] Nash, John F., Global Games and “Globalization”, Princeton, 2007,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/India.Feb.2007/Global_Games_and.2007.f07.ua.doc
[A]nd then what all of them do is work together, and deriving from that is a payoff to all the players. That's the equilibrium – but it’s not understood to be a cooperative idea.[9]
John Nash
[9] Nash, John F., The Trap (2007, Adam Curtis) - Part 1: What happened to our dreams of freedom?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbQcqJh52U8
12:57 / 59:29
The first assumption above expresses the idea that each individual wishes to maximize the utility to himself of the ultimate bargain.[14]
John Nash
[14]Nash, John F., The Bargaining Problem, Econometrica, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1950), pp. 155-162
https://www2.cs.siu.edu/~hexmoor/classes/CS539-F10/Bargaining.pdf
If a unit is delayed in getting its message through, it waits until the message goes through unless it is acting under a command that instructs it to an alternative in such a case. This is a "decision," so this would only apply to a logical unit.[15]
John Nash, Rand Corporation, 1954
[15] Nash, John F., Parallel Computing, Rand Corporation, 1954 AUG 27, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM1361.pdf
[T]he idea is more or less futuristic, and is more appropriate for the "electronic brains" of the future...the idea is to decentralize control.[16]
John Nash, Parallel Control, 1954
[16] Nash, John F., Parallel Computing, Rand Corporation, Research Memorandum to U.S. Air Force, 1954 AUG 27, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM1361.pdf
Nash’s letters detail an encryption technique based on the difficulty of computing certain mathematical functions—an idea that underlies modern cryptography but was not developed publicly until the mid-1970s.
P versus NP
Nash also distinguishes between functions that run in polynomial time and those that run in exponential time. The former are roughly considered “easy” and belong to the set “P” while the latter are “hard” and in the set “non-P”, according to modern theories of computational complexity. A third set, known as NP, involves functions for which it is hard to compute an answer but easy to check whether a proposed answer is valid. [17]
[17] Aron, Jacob, “Nash's Beautiful Mind Pre-Empted Million-Dollar Puzzle,” New Scientist, 2012 FEB 21, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21500-nashs-beautiful-mind-pre-empted-million-dollar-puzzle/
In 1971 there came, under the presidency of Nixon in Washington, the final complete disavowal of the concept of a linkage between the US dollar and gold. This was naturally also the beginning of a period of strong inflation in terms of dollar prices.[21]
John Nash, Ideal Money, 2002
[21] Nash, John F., Ideal Money, 2002, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Beijing.2002/idemo.finer.c.html
I feel that Richard Nixon effectively defined the orientation, in the technical sense of the values of currencies, of "Keynesians", when he said, in 1971, "Now we are all Keynesians."[22]
John Nash, 2014
[22] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and the Motivation of Savings and Thrift, Princeton, 2014, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Mezzanine.Directory/I.M.y.M.S.T.Oxford.c.f18.Lenovo.2014.pptx
Hale Freeman Trotter, a professor of mathematics at Princeton…returned to Princeton initially to help the department adjust to the computer reality when computerization first struck.[24]
[24] Hale Trotter Memorial,
https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/hale-trotter
A 2002 example of John Nash coauthoring a C++ software program survives on a Princeton server.[30]
[30] Nash, Kontorovich, main.cpp, 2002,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/IGTR.World.Scientific.publication/pubfiles/GT/OG.etc/KvNuke/AlexNuke.c
I was working with computers, it was sort of my big pastime, it was my cognitive therapy, in the early days.[31]
[31] Nash, John F., One on One - Professor John Nash - 5 Dec 09 – Part 2, Al Jazeera English, 9:05- 9:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufKIgW9XrCE&t=541s
I was led to the inference that there is the possibility of the evolution of the typical quality of a national currency and therefore of the ultimate possibility of what can be called "asymptotically ideal money.”[34]
John Nash
[34]Nash, John F., Outline for "Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money", Princeton, 2002 DEC 26,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/IGTR.World.Scientific.publication/pubfiles/GT/OG.etc/Lecture.locations.etc/Amherst/Edit/outline.g.txt
What inflation targeting does is to open up the possibility that somehow the various major currencies may evolve to develop stability of value. And in this sense there could be "asymptotically ideal money" in that an evolving trend could lead to the value stability that would constitute a major improvement in quality.[35]
John Nash
[35] Nash, John, Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Revolutionary or Evolutionary Changes or Reforms of Systems of Money, 2008, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../NYU.Tisch.Hall.2008.f15/IM.AIMoney.2008.f11.jh.htm
[O]f the portion specifically concerned with “asymptotically ideal” currencies was added first for a talk at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.[36]
[36] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal, Princeton, 2005 MAY 14, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/PENN_STATE/babu.money.b.pdf
The basic idea is to decentralize control….
In closing, the human brain is a highly parallel setup. It has to be.[38]
John Nash, Parallel Control, 1954
[38] Nash, John F., Parallel Control, Rand Corporation, Project Rand Research Memorandum to U.S. Air Force,
Santa Monica, California, 1954 AUG 27,
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM1361.pdf
“financial crises would be less likely to occur if there was some international monetary standard, such as the gold standard or competition among worldwide currencies, to curb inflation and prevent the rise of mortgage abuses. He expressed some skepticism about a government bailout as a solution.“[39]
[39] Nash, John F., “Nobel Economist Says More Stable Currency Needed,” Fordham Now/BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS,
lecture, 2008 OCT 14, published 2008 OCT 15,
https://now.fordham.edu/business-and-economics/nobel-economist-says-more-stable-currency-needed-2/
One obvious solution for these problems of equity relating to debtors and creditors would be to have, somehow, a scheme that would gradually "phase in" a version of "ideal" money while some sort of typical "20th century money" would be gradually "phased out".[40]
John Nash, 2010
Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money
[40] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, 2010,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Campus_for_Finance_of_2010/IMyAIM.new.media.self.g.j06.ppt
[T]he difficulties that derived from the national debt of Greece, which is currently defined in terms of euros whereas it had been, earlier, defined in terms of drachmas; these difficulties have led to extreme “bail out” actions and to global fears and reactions.[41]
John Nash, 2011
[41] Nash, John F., “Ideal Money and the Motivation of Savings and Thrift,” Princeton, 2011, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../2011/version.prepared.for.Lindau.and.Beijing.2011/v.814.2011.I.M.y.M.S.T.lect.rr.PPTX%20(Read-Only).pdf
And this standard as a basis for the standardization of the value of the international money unit, would remove, where it would be used, the political roles of the “grand pardoners,” the state authorities that can forgive the debts of debtors including, particularly, those of themselves.[42]
John Nash, 2002
[42] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, 2002 DEC, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/money.dec.2002.bi.rtf
To me it seems a striking paradox that central bankers and their economist advisers can think in terms of having a "targeted" rate for inflation without realizing that that rate should be zero!
This paradox, or my perception of it, was what led me to the concept of "Asymptotically Ideal Money".[43]
John Nash, 2003
[43] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, 2003, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/money.dec.2002.bi.rtf
We must assume here (really this is an assumption for simplicity) that numbers are longer than addresses so that a number can contain both instructions and a memory locus.[44]
John Nash, Parallel Control
[44] Nash, John F., PARALLEL CONTROL, Rand, 1954, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/Various_Etc./RAND/k1361.a20
If a unit is delayed in getting its message through, it waits until the message goes through unless it is acting under a command that instructs it to an alternative in such a case. This is a "decision", so this would only apply to a logical unit.[46]
John Nash, Rand Corporation, 1954
[46] Nash, John F., Parallel Computing, Rand Corporation, 1954 AUG 27, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM1361.pdf
In 1954, John Nash wrote,
[T]he idea is more or less futuristic, and is more appropriate for the "electronic brains" of the future...the idea is to decentralize control.[47]
John Nash, Parallel Control
[47] Nash, John F., Parallel Computing, Rand Corporation, Research Memorandum to U.S. Air Force, 1954 AUG 27, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM1361.pdf
A set of rules can be devised so that there are election stages in each of which all of the players remaining independent (not represented by another player as agent) have, each of them, the option of electing another player as an accepted agent.[48]
[48] Nash, John F., “A Project Studying Cooperation in Games Through Modeling in Terms of Formally Non-Cooperative Action in a Repeated Game Context,” 2003, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/Archives.and.Prior.Communications/Archives/2003.talking/provisional2.htm
“When Weibull asked Nash about refining the Nash Equilibrium concept by, perhaps, taking into account irrational moves by players, Nash answered him by talking, not about irrationality, but about immortality.”[49]
[49] Nasar, Sylvia, A Beautiful Mind, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, 1998, p. 361–2.
This long-felt need also blends with Nash talking about the Big Bang and his conversation with longtime friend Lloyd Shapley, who visited Princeton in 1992 and had lunch with Nash. Shapley said, “He’s learned how to use the computer. He was working on the Big Bang.”[50]
[50] Nasar, Sylvia, A Beautiful Mind, 1998, p. 350.
As for the factors against Dr. Wright being Satoshi….
13.1. First, the attributes and behaviour which one would expect Satoshi to exhibit and prove (on the assumption that he would set out to prove he was Satoshi – on which see below), and those he would not. Under this head, the principal points are:
13.1.1. First, Satoshi would be most unlikely to have any real difficulty in proving he was Satoshi. For example, he would be able to present some insight or knowledge from the very early materials which no-one but the creator of Bitcoin would know—perhaps something hidden in the Genesis block. Or he would have been able to transfer Bitcoin out of some of the very early blocks which are generally accepted to have been mined by Satoshi, to prove that he owned those Bitcoin. He would not have lost every private key to those early blocks.
13.1.2. Second, I do not believe that Satoshi would ever have resorted to forgery in his attempt to prove he was Satoshi. He would not have backdated documents or altered the clock on his computer(s), for the simple reason that there was and is no need for him to do so. (For completeness I add that, in the very unlikely event that he did engage in some forgery, upon that being discovered, he would own up and explain why it was he had been driven to forgery. He would not have engaged in yet more forgery or engaged in technobabble in his attempts to justify it.)
13.1.3. Third, the contemporaneous materials written by Satoshi, including the White Paper, the posts and his email exchanges with individuals, convey an impression of a calm, knowledgeable, collaborative, precise person with little or no arrogance, willing to acknowledge and implement ideas and suggestions from others who had shown an interest in Bitcoin.
13.1.4. Fourth, due to his collaborative and non-confrontational nature, I consider it is most unlikely that Satoshi would ever have resorted to litigation against the Developers. Satoshi would have recognized that differences in views led to the hard forks in the Bitcoin Blockchain and moved on.[52]
[52] Justice Mellor, Approved Judgment, COPA claim vs. Craig Wright (also known as “Fakatoshi”), 2024 MAY 20,
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/COPA-v-Wright-Judgment.pdf
If, say, a Scot named Adam Smith has a temporary surplus of earned income over expenses then what can he do with this surplus that is both cautious and wise?[53]
John Nash, 2011
[53] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and the Motivation of Savings and Thrift, Princeton, 2011, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../2011/version.prepared.for.Lindau.and.Beijing.2011/v.814.2011.I.M.y.M.S.T.lect.rr.PPTX%20(Read-Only).pdf
I spoke about the theme of “the evolution of cooperation” (in Nature) and about how that topic was amenable to studies involving Game Theory (which, more frequently, has been used in research in economics).
After that event I was stimulated to think of the possibility of modeling cooperation in games through actions of acceptance in which one player could simply accept the “agency” of another player or of an existing coalition of players….
These studies of “PD” (or “Prisoner’s Dilemma”) games have revealed the paradoxical possibility of the natural evolution of cooperative behavior when the interacting organisms or species are presumed only to be endowed with self-interested motivations, thus motivations of a non-cooperative type.[54]
[54] Nash, John F., The Agencies Method for Modeling Coalitions and Cooperation in Games, Department of Mathematics Princeton University, 2008,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/VZ.Class.pac.507/Nash2008.AK.pdf
Jacques Rueff, F. A. von Hayek, and R. Mundell are notable scholars and economists who have particularly contributed to the theories of how a system or systems of money might be improved in an effectively revolutionary fashion.[55]
John Nash, 2010
[55] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, 2010,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Campus_for_Finance_of_2010/
Our proposal is that a preferable version of a general system for the transferring of utility, thus a "medium of exchange", would be structured so as to provide a medium with a natural (and reliable!) stability of value. And this stability of value would be particularly of benefit in connection with contracts or exchanges involving long time periods for the complete performance of the contract or exchange.[56]
John Nash, 2010
[56] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, 2010,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Campus_for_Finance_of_2010/
[A]fter consulting with some of the economics faculty at Princeton, I learned of the work and publications of Friedrich von Hayek. I must say that my thinking is apparently quite parallel to his thinking in relation to money and particularly with regard to the non-typical viewpoint in relation to the functions of the authorities.[1]
John Nash, 2007
[57] Nash, John F., Ideal Money lecture notes, Princeton, 2007 https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Beijing.2002/idemo.finer.c.html
Nash’s asymptotic means approaching a value, not reaching it. It’s a mathematical concept. This is a Nash–Nakamoto signature attribute. With each halving, the block reward gets cut in half. The block reward will asymptotically approach zero. Using precise math, Satoshi defines a reward schedule that snips off the tail at block height 6,930,000. “In the whitepaper too, Satoshi designs the code to avoid an infinite tail.”[58]
[58] Gulson, Jon, Tail Indexing and Bitcoin, Medium.com, 2024 JULY 24,
https://jongulson.medium.com/tail-indexing-and-bitcoin-9a2628bad08f
John Nash explains, “The Equilibrium is the ingredient, which is used, is that what I do, is perfectly adjusted in relation to what you’re doing, and what you’re doing, or what any other person is doing, is perfectly adjusted to what I am doing, or what all other people are doing. They are seeking separate optimizations….That is the Equilibrium.”[59]
[59] Nash, John F., Interview with Adam Curtis, 2007, 12:07/59:17,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOD4W55pugY
[D]epending on how things were fundamentally arranged, the probabilities of serious damage through "political corruption" might become as small as the probabilities that the values of the standard meter and kilogram will be corrupted.[60]
John Nash, Ideal Money, 2002
[60] Nash, John F., Ideal Money, 2002, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Beijing.2002/idemo.finer.c.html
It is remarkable the bargaining has been applied in auctions. It is now a big-money, billion-dollar industry. I did see the application possibilities right from the start: some of my earliest publications were in econometrics.[61]
John Nash, 2004
[61] A John Nash interview, “Return of a 'Beautiful Mind,”
https://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/paleopsych/2005-January/001600.html
(Original Source: New Scientist Magazine, 2004 DEC 18, p. 46).
The Bitcoin might not be it, but...you could have gold which is a step to honesty—or silver…that was intrinsically honest… Caesar is minting gold and… it is very well used and accepted, and the empire is working well on the gold coins, and then Caesar comes along and says well I can put a little lead in these gold coins.[62]
John Nash
The Oxford Union
[62] Nash, John F. Ideal Money and The Motivation for Savings and Thrift, The Oxford Union, video published 2015 FEB 24, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUyCO3FXHS4&t=10s
In Nash’s own words, “What I do is perfectly adjusted in relation to what you’re doing, and what you’re doing or what any other person is doing is perfectly adjusted to what I am doing or what all other people are doing. They are seeking separate optimizations…. That is the Equilibrium.”[63]
[63] Nash, John F., 2007, interview with Adam Curtis, 12:07/59:17,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOD4W55pugY
So this equilibrium concept is quite parallel to the concept of equilibrium under evolutionary pressures (or “natural selection”) in Nature.[64]
John Nash, 2008
[64] Nash, John F., “Studying Cooperative Games Using the Method of Agencies,” 2008, Princeton,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/Various_Etc./ECCAD_2008/ECCAD.text.version.u.505.2008.rtf
It is as if what we call an "ideal money" (having ultra-stable value) is the natural alternative concept to that sort of money which is to be expected if "Keynesian" policies and/or influences are operating to influence and guide the central banks and treasuries.[65]
John Nash, 2014
[65] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and the Motivation of Savings and Thrift, Princeton University, 2014 FEB 2,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Mezzanine.Directory/I.M.y.M.S.T.Oxford.c.f18.Lenovo.2014.pptx
In principle, coalitions, and specifically coalitions as considered by Von Neumann and Morgenstern in "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior", are things that could be implemented by contracts, like contracts in roman law. But of course a contract is quite intrinsically a "verbal" thing because indeed it could (or should!) be written down in words.[66]
John Nash, 2003
[66] Nash, John F., A Project Studying Cooperation in Games Via Modeling in Terms of Formally Non-Cooperative Action in a Repeated Game Context, 2003, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/Archives.and.Prior.Communications/Archives/2003.talking/provisional2.htm
How do “good money” and “bad money” differ, if at all, for the valuable function of facilitating utility transfer? But if we consider contracts having a relatively long time axis then the difference can be seen clearly.[67]
[67] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, 2004, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Georgetown.University/
Ideal Money is that of the importance of the comparative quality of the money used in an economic society to the possible precision, as an indicator of quality, of the contracts for performances of future contractual obligations.[68]
John Nash, 2008
[68] Nash, John F.,
Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money,
Revolutionary or Evolutionary Changes or Reforms of Systems of Money, 2008, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../NYU.Tisch.Hall.2008.f15/IM.AIMoney.2008.f11.jh.htm
Our proposal is a "medium of exchange" with a natural (and reliable!) stability of value…particularly of benefit in connection with contracts or exchanges… Classically, when gold or silver was used as the basis that objective was consequently achieved.[69]
John Nash, 2010
[69] Nash, John F., Revolutionary or Evolutionary Changes or Reforms of Systems of Money, 2010, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Campus_for_Finance_of_2010/IMyAIM.new.media.self.g.j06.ppt
Christine Lagarde is the president of the European Central Bank (ECB). She said, “If there is an escape, that escape will be used.”[70]
[70] Helms, Kevin, news.bitcoin.com. “ECB Chief Christine Lagarde Calls for Global Bitcoin Regulation — Says BTC Conducts 'Funny Business,'” 2021 JAN 14,
https://news.bitcoin.com/ecb-christine-lagarde-global-bitcoin-regulation-btc
Bitcoin’s evolutionary approach mirrors Nash’s Asymptotically Ideal Money. In Nash’s 2008 lecture two weeks before the Bitcoin Whitepaper was published, he said, “Change can come at a stroke, like when Alexander cut the Gordian knot, or it can come in a gradual fashion, through many smaller steps, and this latter can be classed as the pathway of ‘evolutionary change.’”[71]
[71] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically
Ideal Money: Revolutionary or Evolutionary Changes
or Reforms of Systems of Money, Princeton, 2008, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Lindau.2008/IyAIMoney.landscape.2008.812.rm.pdf
And this standard as a basis, for the standardization of the value of the international money unit, would remove, where it would be used, the political roles of the “grand pardoners,” the state authorities that can forgive the debts of debtors including, particularly, those of themselves.[1]
John Nash
[72] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, 2002 DEC, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/money.dec.2002.bi.rtf
Nash said,
[A] form of "ideal" money would also be, of itself, a sort of artifact that would be, more or less, worthy of hoarding, to some extent, rather than being like a collapsing Argentine, German, or Zimbabwean currency that should be exchanged as quickly as possible by any worker being paid in that currency.[73]
[73] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money,
A Means for Introducing a Money with a Standard Value, Princeton, 2010January6,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Campus_for_Finance_of_2010/IMyAIM.new.media.self.g.j06.ppt
[I]t is indeed after all possible to control inflation by controlling the supply of money.[74]
John Nash
[74] Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/Various_Etc./Penn_State/Ideal/money.n02.z.BG.rtf
Whether or not the scientific understanding of the cause and effect mechanisms is perfected here, the situation can be observed to involve a lot of “game structure”, if anything practical is to be done by the human populations in the various countries of the world.[75]
John Nash, 2007
[75] Nash, John F., Global Games and “Globalization, Princeton, 2007,
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/India.Feb.2007/Global_Games_and.2007.f07.ua.doc
Way back in 2002, John Nash lectured saying,
[N]ow we have only to imagine that a groundswell of popular demand for minimal inflation and thus for money that would be viewed by foreign observers as of higher quality.[76]
[76]Nash, John F., Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, Princeton, 2002
https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/IDEAL_MONEY.../Older/Mumbai/money.dec.2002.bi.rtf
“Two’s company, three’s a crowd.”[77]
[77] Nash, John F., THE AGENCIES METHOD FOR MODELING
COALITIONS AND COOPERATION IN GAMES, 2008, International Game Theory Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2008) 539–564, World Scientific Publishing Company, https://web.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/Main.Content/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/Summer.Meetings.2010.r.710/Berlin.short.316.study/Nash2008.AK.pdf