[Philip Lelyveld comment: Now things are just getting silly. Mastercoin is simultaneously building out, strengthening, and competing with the Bitcoin infrastructure.]
In the digital age, and especially with Bitcoin, we’ve long since done away with the need for a gold standard. Money and new currencies are entirely manufacturable. Backers of a new “programmable money layer” calledMastercoin claim their system will allow anyone to devise their own currency by using the preexisting Bitcoin economy as a foundation. It will allow anyone in the world to exchange their Bitcoin for Mastercoin, which can then be traded again for user-generated currencies.