Bitcoin: America's New Guard

Bitcoin is the most American technology ever to exist.

What do I mean by that? Call me an optimist - but to me, when something is "American," it's something that is innovative, open with the opportunity to all, and pushes the needle towards individual freedom and away from tyranny.

I said I was an optimist.

Undoubtedly, our country has had devastating faults throughout its history. And I understand some believe the United States has been more an arsonist than a firefighter to human freedoms. But I still believe that the United States' decentralized republic focused on individual rights is the best available form of government in the world.

Bitcoin is a technology that allows individuals to securely self-custody their own wealth at scale. This characteristic alone is synonymous with western law of human rights and property rights.

This aspect of bitcoin may seem redundant for us living in a developed nation where banks respect our ability to withdraw and deposit our wealth relatively freely. But for countries where entire governments collapse and any traditional financial infrastructure either lock out their money or plunders their savings through corruption - this is a groundbreaking innovation. (I highly recommend reading Alex Gladstein's "Check Your Financial Privilege", which goes into greater detail on the subject.)

Thus, bitcoin strengthens US hegemony by digitizing its values - allowing world markets to integrate better with open societies instead of centralized authoritarian regimes by increasing the cost of tyranny and economic incompetence.

But how could Bitcoin be pro-American if it's a threat to the US Dollar?

It's not a threat. Bitcoin replacing the dollar is just simply not practical. Our entire global economic system is based on the US Dollar as the primary reserve currency. You can see this happening now with the current financial crisis. As fiat currencies lose their purchasing power, countries are incentivized to flock to the US Dollar as it's inflating less rapidly (See Bloomberg article.)

And bitcoin doesn't need to replace the dollar to succeed and improve human flourishing. Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor covered a more realistic trajectory of Bitcoin in a Bitcoin Magazine interview, where he makes the case that Bitcoin could take over the gold market and balance out over-monetized assets such as real estate:

"There is no nation of gold. Gold doesn't have a police force. It has no army. There is no NSA/CIA protecting gold. No one is going to fight and die for gold. There is no president of gold. No one's getting elected to defend gold.

So if you want to improve the human condition as fast as possible with the least amount of confusion and friction and unintended consequences, you simply attack the "nation of gold" and swap out everyone that wants sound money in the form of gold for bitcoin. And after you finish that, you swap out $100 trillion worth of real estate and property investments for bitcoin. And after that, you swap out corporate bonds and equity indexes.

You demonetize equity, and you demonetize corporate bonds. By the time you've done that, you probably will have changed the politics in 100 countries, and you'll probably have very favorable politicians, and bitcoin probably will have built itself into the political apparatus of those countries. And either their currency will become a bitcoin-backed derivative ( they will back their currency to bitcoin), or they will adopt bitcoin. And in any event, your currency gets stronger when you do intelligent things."

I make no predictions about this economic climate, only that we may see insane volatility for all assets as we enter uncharted territories regarding monetary policies, geopolitical conflicts, and supply chains.

However, I believe the world would be less free if the primary reserve currency were controlled by authoritarian entities such as the Chinese Communist Party.

Do I see Bitcoin's characteristics as a better form of money than the US Dollar? Yes, but taking its "spot" is not happening anytime soon, if ever. Nor does it need to. It has features of commodity-ness and currency-ness that I still can't calculate the impact of. And until the market understands its utilities (banking the unbanked, monetizing energy, fixed supply, faster transactions, peer-to-peer payments, etc.), the short-term and practical path for Bitcoin is to lift the burdens of gold and over-monetized assets, not competing with the almighty dollar.

Even if the US Dollar is ever challenged, I would want the US Dollar and Bitcoin to be the top two communications of value instead of any currency backed by authoritarian regimes who immorally control the flow of capital on a macro basis.

Metaphorically speaking, this dynamic of a global US Dollar "checking account" used by many and a Bitcoin "savings account" open to all would be a positive force for freedom. This wouldn't just benefit the US but any nation that has built its system around the rule of law and human rights.

This article, along with all content and opinions from BTC Examiner, is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Please reach out to your financial advisor before making any investment.