Fake Money - ERIC KIM

A funny mini drama currently at the house: a family friend withdraws money from a Bank of America ATM machine, and much to her dismay discovers that one of the $100 bills which was dispensed was a counterfeit $100 bill. How did she find this out? It is when she tried to deposit the hundred dollar bill at the bank, the bank did not accept it.

I did my personal due diligence, and closely inspected the $100 bill, seeing if I could spot it being a counterfeit. Superficially, I kind of had a gut feeling that it was a counterfeit. Why? Although the paper felt pretty real, the color of the green ink seemed a bit off. The green color was too bright, too cartoony. Also when I inspected the printed text closer, the text didn’t seem sharp enough.

And this is the thought that came to my mind:

You cannot fake or counterfeit cryptocurrency. This would have never happened if it were crypto.

How much money do governments, economies, and individuals lose from counterfeiting?

It seems like a lot. And therefore, if governments and individuals use more cryptocurrency‘s instead of printed paper money cash, you would squash out counterfeiting.

Money as trust?

I’ve been wondered, what can we do with this counterfeit $100 bill. Superficially, it looks very real. If you gave somebody $500 in cash, and one of the hundred dollar bills was the counterfeit one, most people probably couldn’t tell. Then I started to wonder, the only reason we don’t give people counterfeit money when we know it is counterfeit, is because of ethics and a sense of trust, and mutual respect.

CRYPTO THOUGHTS

Brave new world for photographers and crypto: