>Money is an artifact of the state; always has been always will.
Nothing can be further from the truth. You don't have to go too far for the example. Cigarettes in prisons are used as money. People use all sorts of things as money. State wants to control it because it wants to collect some of the value produced by other people. That is all. Bitcoin is about not giving states these powers.
Cigarettes have all those properties, just somewhat imperfectly. Cartons are divisble to packs which are divisible to individual cigarettes. Cigarettes are pretty durable - if you don't get them wet and avoid breaking them they have a reasonably long shelf life. And they are pretty uniform in each division - carton, pack, cigarette. Since prisons allow prisoners to smoke cigarettes they have the cover of utility while being used as money.
I always thought that money has three characteristics: fungibility, divisibility, and verifiability (although divisibility can be relaxed for small values). Cigarettes pass two of the three, and fail only the weakest one, in a fashion that doesn't matter.
Mackerel was chosen since it's cost was closest to $1USD, and nobody wants to eat it. It also has unique markings so they can track down theft from each other.
Dudes trying to get swole inside usually trade junk food for more prison chow and milk with other inmates who cant get commissary, also weight stacks were removed in most state and fed yards like California, so they fill laundry bags with water in their cells as makeshift weights when guards aren't around.
Mackerel would be worse than cigarettes as they are not divisible. It would also be a good source of Vitamin D if you were incarcerated in northern latitudes
In most countries AFAIK it is illegal to mint your own "currency" and call it as such, hence artifact of the state.
Bitcoin lets non-state actors create currency.. incidentally, those most equipped to fund the processing power, are state actors, hence artifact of the state.
You can make your own currency all you want. You just can't make currency and pass it off as state sponsored currency without permission from the state.
Nothing can be further from the truth. You don't have to go too far for the example. Cigarettes in prisons are used as money. People use all sorts of things as money. State wants to control it because it wants to collect some of the value produced by other people. That is all. Bitcoin is about not giving states these powers.