Imagine that the whole world agreed on a single digital currency, with a limited supply of just 100 billion units—no more.
Oil, gold $XAU , wheat, and houses would all be priced in it. And the dollar? It would no longer exist.
🤔 First puzzling question: if there were no dollars left to measure with, how much would this currency $XRP be worth in the first place?
The surprising answer is that its value isn’t a magic number, but a simple calculation:
Unit value = the amount of money in the world ÷ the number of units
Example: If 100 trillion of the world's money were converted into it, each unit would be worth 1,000 units of account. If only 10 trillion were converted, it would be worth 100.
But a large number doesn't mean you've become rich. What matters is what you can buy with it—in other words, its real purchasing power.
⚠️ The bigger problem: if the currency supply is fixed while the economy grows, each unit becomes more valuable over time, and prices keep falling.
That sounds great, but it hides a trap:
Why spend today when your money will buy more tomorrow? People hoard it, and trading grinds to a halt.
And debts become heavier every day.
And there's no one to inject liquidity during crises.
💡 A new perspective: The value of any currency comes not just from its scarcity, but from people's trust in it and their need to use it. Scarcity creates the dream, but use is what creates value.
Perhaps the solution isn't a single currency ruling the world, but a two-layer system: a scarce currency as the foundation for major settlements, with a flexible layer on top for everyday life.
🗣️ My question for you:
Do you think the world needs a scarce currency to preserve wealth, or a flexible currency to keep the economy moving? Or does the answer lie in combining the two?
Share your thoughts in the comments 👇
This is a hypothetical intellectual analysis, not financial or investment advice.