"The Broken Standard" and the Ghost of the Gold Standard
What is your money really backed by?
It’s a simple question with a complicated history. For a long time, the answer was simple: gold. There was a direct, physical link between the paper in your pocket and a bar of gold in a vault. This was the Gold Standard.
But in 1971, that link was severed. The standard was broken.
That moment in history is the subject of our latest art drop, "The Broken Standard," installed right where it belongs: on the cold, steel wall of a bank in Barcelona.
Decoding "The Broken Standard"
Our artwork depicts the familiar Monopoly Man, a symbol of the banking elite, gleefully holding an endless supply of freshly printed cash. Behind him, a vault door swings open to reveal the truth: the gold bars that once backed his currency are shattered.
This is the reality of the fiat monetary system.
When the Gold Standard was abandoned, governments and central banks gave themselves the power to print money without limit. This power leads to inflation, currency devaluation, and a silent theft of your savings and purchasing power. The "standard" of sound money was broken, and replaced with a system of trust in political promises.
Our artwork is a public receipt of this broken promise. It's a history lesson pasted on a wall, designed to make every person who walks by an ATM question the very nature of the money they are about to withdraw.
The New Standard
The old standard is broken, but a new one is being built. This new standard isn't based on a shiny metal in a vault, nor is it based on the promises of politicians. It's a standard built on mathematics, transparency, and Proof of Work. Bitcoin represents a return to a monetary system with integrity—a standard that cannot be broken or manipulated by a central authority.
This piece will be part of our open-source arsenal. It's time to remind the world what they've forgotten.
