While the United States trends towards isolationism, it’s also opening the door to have the dollar supplanted by Bitcoin as the primary international currency of choice.
‘If You Let Your Mind Wander a Little Bit’
The United States dollar is the main international currency and has been for more than 50 years. According to Ken Jacobs, CEO of financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard, that fact could change in the not-so-distant future — thanks to the undermining power of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Jacobs explained in a Bloomberg Television interview late last week:
To the extent that we have unilateral foreign policy and unilateral trade policy, we’re sort of tempting the world to find an alternative. Probably the greatest demonstration of soft power is the fact that the U.S. has the reserve currency of the world.
That alternative is not likely to be another foreign fiat currency. Rather, Bitcoin appears to be the prime contender, though it’s possible another or multiple cryptocurrencies could share the responsibility.
Jacobs stated:
There’s enough technology out in the world today with cryptocurrency and changes going on that you can imagine, if you let your mind wander a little bit, that something becomes an alternative in the future.
The comment comes from one of the world’s major merger advisers and carries a lot of weight. As noted by Bloomberg, “Lazard managed more than $250 billion of assets as of the end of March, and is one of the world’s top 10 merger advisers.”
First in Flight
While Bitcoin remains a front-runner to replace the dollar as the world’s new international currency, the first and foremost cryptocurrency already holds the crown for the top form of flight capital.
Flight capital, generally speaking, is money transferred abroad to either avoid taxes and/or inflation or provide for possible emigration — particularly in times of war. As noted by Clem Chambers, CEO of ADVFN.com and author of Be Rich, The Game in Wall Street and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginner’s Guide:
A normal person sweating a war isn’t a billionaire with a private office, but in the old days they might have stashed a few thousand or even hundreds of thousands in gold if they thought the balloon was going up.
Today you’d stash it in Bitcoin and be safe in the knowledge that you could fly away on holiday somewhere safe for a few months and your stash would be as safe as the place your hid you private keys.
Do you think Bitcoin could become the main international currency? Let us know in the comments below!
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