"THE VALUN PRIVATE ENTERPRISE MONEY SYSTEM, BEING NON-POLITICAL, HAS NO NATIONALITY OR BOUNDARIES"

RIEGEL, Edwin Clarence. Private Enterprise Money. A Non-Political Money System. New York: Harbinger House, (1944). Octavo, original dark green cloth, original dust jacket. $500.

First edition of Riegel's fascinating, forward-looking treatise on the creation of a unit of money—the "valun"—that would operate independently of banks and nationalities, anticipating the recent creation of blockchain peer-to-peer distributed ledgers, particularly when used as currency.

"The valun private enterprise money system, being non-political, has no nationality or boundaries. It is therefore naturally an universal money system, thought it may begin in a local trading area anywhere and extend anywhere regardless of political boundaries. It offers, therefore, a new basis for the international union of peoples on the economic plane quite independent of their political differences" (page 107). Riegel believed that it was essential to liberate the exchange process from the dominance of political and banking interests in order to protect the interests of the people. Similar claims have been made about blockchain technology, most popularly known in its manifestation as bitcoin. Blockchain peer-to-peer distributed network technology was invented by a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency "bitcoin"; many other cyptocurrencies have been invented since using the same or similar technology.

Book fine, dust jacket bright and near-fine.