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Hammurabi was an 18th-century BCE king of Babylon who turned laws into instruments of order and royal power. His famous code of around 282 laws is often called one of humanity’s first legal codes. But justice there came with… a pricing tier.
Babylonian society was divided into several classes: awilum—free citizens; mushkenum—people of lower status; and slaves. And the very same crime could cost them very different amounts. If a free man put out the eye of an equal, he was to lose his own eye—the famous “an eye for an eye.” But if a person of lower status was injured, the punishment could instead take the form of monetary compensation. For injuring a slave, the owner was paid the value of the damage.
And the laws didn’t just protect people: if a poorly built house collapsed and killed its owner, the builder could be executed. Hammurabi clearly loved order—especially when it benefited the state.
The crypto takeaway: there’s no single price for a mistake in the market, either. A whale can ride out a dip, while a hamster might get their own “eye for an eye” at the very first liquidation.
Hammurabi was an 18th-century BCE king of Babylon who turned laws into instruments of order and royal power. His famous code of around 282 laws is often called one of humanity’s first legal codes. But justice there came with… a pricing tier.
Babylonian society was divided into several classes: awilum—free citizens; mushkenum—people of lower status; and slaves. And the very same crime could cost them very different amounts. If a free man put out the eye of an equal, he was to lose his own eye—the famous “an eye for an eye.” But if a person of lower status was injured, the punishment could instead take the form of monetary compensation. For injuring a slave, the owner was paid the value of the damage.
And the laws didn’t just protect people: if a poorly built house collapsed and killed its owner, the builder could be executed. Hammurabi clearly loved order—especially when it benefited the state.
The crypto takeaway: there’s no single price for a mistake in the market, either. A whale can ride out a dip, while a hamster might get their own “eye for an eye” at the very first liquidation.
