I’ve been reading a bit of Stefan Eich’s book on money. It’s often considered a dramatic statement to consider money an intersubjective belief. That its power is just what we give it. While this is true, Eich considers money an institution which a society aims to construct, much like the law. The legitimacy of this institution, to Eich, is the ability of those affected by it to author it. In this light, the intersubjectivity of ‘murder’ is compared with money. We don’t really consider such an institution in the same light.
Eich notes that there’s an orthodox theory of commodity money. The utility version of it. That it emerges out of convenience. And then the heterodox form which is credit money. Trust based not dependent on physicality. More of an abstract institution.