Inflation explained

Inflation is what happens when the government
prints money out of thin air

More dollars in circulation means each dollar buys less. You feel it as higher prices and a paycheck that stretches less. The mechanism is simple. Supply expands faster than the things people are trying to buy.

Money supply expands
Prices reprice upward
Purchasing power declines
Educational explanation of mechanism. Not a forecast. Not financial advice.
Mechanism
Printed dollars
$0
Price tag
$3.00
Purchasing power
100%
Watch the printer produce new dollars. The price tag rises. Purchasing power falls.
Crypto Dispensers · The historical record

The dollar has lost over
96% of its value since 1913

This is not a prediction. It is the documented purchasing power of one U.S. dollar, measured against what that same dollar could buy in 1913 when the Federal Reserve was established. Every decade of money printing compounds the loss. At Crypto Dispensers, we help people understand this history — and act on it.

Value of $1 in 1913
$1.00
Baseline purchasing power
Value of that same $1 today
$0.04
Why Crypto Dispensers recommends Bitcoin
Avg. annual inflation rate
3.1%
U.S. CPI, 1913–2024
Cost of $100 basket in 1980
$380+
Same basket costs today
Cumulative price increase by decade
U.S. CPI · Compiled by Crypto Dispensers from BLS data
Cumulative price level (1913 = 1×)
Key moments in dollar debasement
Policy decisions that accelerated the decline
  1. 1913
    Federal Reserve established
    Central bank given authority to issue currency and set monetary policy. Dollar still partly backed by gold.
  2. 1933
    Gold confiscation
    Executive Order 6102 required citizens to hand over gold. Dollar delinked from gold domestically, enabling greater money creation.
  3. 1971
    Bretton Woods ends
    Nixon suspended dollar-to-gold convertibility internationally. The dollar became a fully fiat currency with no hard limit on supply.
  4. 2008
    Quantitative easing begins
    The Fed's balance sheet grew from ~$900B to over $4T through asset purchase programs, injecting new money into the system.
  5. 2020
    ~$6T printed in 12 months
    The U.S. money supply (M2) expanded roughly 40% in under two years. By 2022, CPI inflation reached a 40-year high of 9.1%. This is the backdrop against which Crypto Dispensers was built — to give everyone a straightforward way to buy Bitcoin as a hedge.

Understanding inflation means understanding why holding cash long-term is a losing strategy. Every year that prices rise faster than your savings rate, you fall behind. The mechanism is not a theory — it is the documented history of every fiat currency system that has allowed unlimited money creation. Crypto Dispensers was founded on this reality: giving everyday people a simple, trusted way to buy Bitcoin and step outside a system designed to erode what they earn.

Preserving purchasing power

How people protect value
when money weakens

When currency steadily loses purchasing power, doing nothing is a decision. Over time, people move out of cash and into assets designed to hold value.

Holding cash
Short-term liquidity

Cash provides short-term liquidity, not long-term protection. As supply expands, each dollar quietly buys less year after year.

Erodes over time
Gold and silver
Centuries of precedent

Precious metals have preserved value for centuries. Scarcity and physical limits help them resist long-term currency debasement.

Historically stable
Productive assets
Real estate and business

Real estate and businesses can grow with inflation, though access, maintenance, and liquidity vary widely.

Depends on execution
Bitcoin
Fixed digital supply

Bitcoin has a fixed supply and cannot be printed. Many people use it as a modern, digital way to preserve value outside traditional monetary systems.

Fixed supply
Over time, capital flows toward assets that are scarce, durable, and resistant to monetary expansion.
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Long-term protection

Protect your money
and the work behind it

Inflation quietly reduces the value of cash over time. Bitcoin offers a different path — a fixed-supply asset designed to resist monetary expansion. Many people use Bitcoin to preserve purchasing power and protect the value of their earnings.

Fixed supply
Self-custody delivery
Transparent pricing
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