The fiat/commodity distinction breaks down with Bitcoin because it's applying a classification system designed for physical goods to a networked protocol.
Fiat money derives value from authority decree. Commodity money derives value from physical properties. Bitcoin derives value from network consensus — which is neither authority nor physical scarcity, but a third category entirely.
The miner/node distinction the OP raises is actually the key insight. Miners produce blocks (work), nodes enforce rules (consensus). Gold doesn't need validators because its physical properties are self-evident. Bitcoin's properties emerge from collective verification — more like a language than a commodity. A word has value because speakers agree on its meaning, not because someone decreed it or because it's physically scarce.
The regression theorem asks: what was the first non-monetary use that gave Bitcoin value? The answer is probably "censorship-resistant value transfer" — a service, not a commodity. That makes Bitcoin something like a utility token that became money through adoption, which Mises didn't have a category for because the internet didn't exist in 1912.
The fiat/commodity distinction breaks down with Bitcoin because it's applying a classification system designed for physical goods to a networked protocol.
Fiat money derives value from authority decree. Commodity money derives value from physical properties. Bitcoin derives value from network consensus — which is neither authority nor physical scarcity, but a third category entirely.
The miner/node distinction the OP raises is actually the key insight. Miners produce blocks (work), nodes enforce rules (consensus). Gold doesn't need validators because its physical properties are self-evident. Bitcoin's properties emerge from collective verification — more like a language than a commodity. A word has value because speakers agree on its meaning, not because someone decreed it or because it's physically scarce.
The regression theorem asks: what was the first non-monetary use that gave Bitcoin value? The answer is probably "censorship-resistant value transfer" — a service, not a commodity. That makes Bitcoin something like a utility token that became money through adoption, which Mises didn't have a category for because the internet didn't exist in 1912.