Henry Ford and his ‘energy money’ idea

Back in 1921, Henry Ford, the man who gave the world an affordable car (the Model T) proposed the creation of an “energy currency” that could form the basis of a new monetary system. At the time, his thoughts on this were reported by the New York Tribune as, “Ford would replace gold with energy currency and stop wars.”

Ford actually planned to use a Muscle Shoals plant to demonstrate how he could substitute ‘natural wealth’ for coins and bank notes, and not just in the USA, everywhere in the world. He believed replacing gold with an energy currency could break the banking elites’ grip on global wealth and put an end to wars. He intended to do this by building “the world’s greatest power plant” and creating a new currency system based on “units of power.” Ford said:

“Under the energy currency system the standard would be a certain amount of energy exerted for one hour that would be equal to one dollar. It’s simply a case of thinking and calculating in terms different from those laid down to us by the international banking group to which we have grown so accustomed that we think there is no other desirable standard.”

Does Ford’s idea sound a little bit like Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin? There are similarities, and one could say that Ford has been vindicated by the arrival of Bitcoin in 2009, and since then more than 18.8 million BTC have been created through energy-intensive mining that requires computers to solve increasingly complex math problems.

What Ford said in relation to how his ‘energy money’ would stop wars is also interesting for those in the crypto world. He said, “The essential evil of gold in its relation to war is the fact that it can be controlled. Break the control and you stop war.” Indeed, as Cointelegraph reports, “Some of Bitcoin’s most ardent supports believe the cryptocurrency’s sound money principles could eliminate war by reducing the state’s ability to fund conflict through inflation.”

Over the weekend Reddit users upvoted Ford’s idea, with some believing that Satoshi Nakamoto is/was a reincarnation of Henry Ford. However, we would then need to accept that Satoshi was one person and not a group of people, but it’s a fun idea anyway.