Nice history of the gold standard. Will be interesting to see what’s next for the current phase. Virtual currencies like M-PESA in Africa, Q Coins in China, or even Facebook Credits in the U.S. and elsewhere, may grow to be ranked alongside smaller national currencies and eventually could even challenge the major currencies around the world. Among other things, this will depend on future inflation and whether the virtual currencies continue to have fixed exchange rates to a national currency. So long as the virtual currencies are fixed, any deterioration in the purchasing power of the linked national currency will cause the same loss for the virtual currency. This is where a commodity backed virtual currency might be a real game changer.