Classic rationalizations of fiat. The core flaw in your argument is that you're treating money as if it's productive, like a cow that gives milk or a fruit tree that bears fruit. But money is sterile—it doesn't grow, reproduce, or produce anything by itself. When you lend 100 grams of gold and demand 150 back, that extra 50 grams doesn't come from any new wealth created by the money sitting in your pocket. It has to come from somewhere else in the economy—from the borrower's labor, from consumers, or from new money entering the system. You're demanding payment for literally nothing but the passage of time. That's the theft: you're selling something that doesn't exist (the "fruit" of barren metal) and forcing the productive part of society to pay you tribute forever just for using what should be a neutral medium of exchange. Your risk argument falls apart too. Real risk (like investing in a farm or a business) deserves profit because you're sharing in actual productive enterprise. But a full-recourse loan backed by collateral isn't true risk-sharing—you get your principal plus interest no matter what, and if the borrower defaults, you seize his assets. Heads you win, tails he loses twice. That's not "bird in the hand"—that's rigging the game. Time preference doesn't create value out of thin air either. My preferring a house today over one in ten years doesn't entitle me to demand someone build me an extra half-house for free. Money is supposed to facilitate exchange, not be a perpetual claim on the future labor of others. The entire fiat debt-slavery system exists because central banks and fractional-reserve banks can create infinite credit from nothing and charge compound interest on it forever—guaranteeing a perpetual transfer of wealth from producers to money-creators. Bitcoin's hard cap restores money's sterility: you can't lend out what doesn't exist, no endless debt spiral, no parasitic class living off interest on fake money. Your "fair exchange" defense is exactly what defends the Cantillon racket Bitcoin was invented to destroy. Usury isn't freedom—it's the means by which everyone is enslaved.