In the growing conflict between the West and China the adoption of Bitcoin may prove decisive.
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When China banned BTC in September 2021 it announced more than just a crackdown of insurgent economic activity. China’s system cannot take advantage of the decentralized blockchain revolution, because their political, and increasingly, their economic vision is directly opposed to the decentralization and autonomy literally embodied in the code of blockchain protocols.
On the other hand, the West have an opportunity to restore the integrity of money and realise the financial benefits of blockchain technology and tokenisation. In addition the benefits for society from an open and transparent technology is a reduction in corruption.
The problem for elites is that power will shift but with any vestige of freedom the old adage applies that nothing is more powerful than a good idea whose time has come.
There are now numerous examples of successful adoption, including El Salvador.
Now not a week goes by in crypto news in which countries are giving serious consideration being given to adoption of crypto as part of strategic reserves or part of a sovereign wealth fund.
Trends In The News
In Europe the Czechia government recently announced a proposal to have a BTC reserve. The Czechian Central bank is eyeing up 5% in BTC assets. Whilst Russia has banned crypto the government still holds some in a de facto adoption. Other countries are undoubtedly buying on the down low.
Despite years of regulatory hostility in the US now Pro-BTC Steve Bessent has been officially confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury and David Sack’s appointment as crypto-tsar the climate has shifted favourably.
Several US states are considering adoption. These states include Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Alabama, Massachusetts. However this is a growing list.
Take for example Arizona whose bill proposes a strategic BTC reserve fund capped at 10%, but only if the US government establishes it’s own SBR. This aligns with Sen Lummis’ Bitcoin Act which aims to enable states to participatte in a federally managed programme.
Of course the MSM still woefully ignorant, continue to pour water on such schemes. Wasting taxpayers money, rushing to join a Ponzi scheme etc. Taxpayers on the other hand are sick of continually declining services and tax hikes and would welcome an influx of money.
As Gerald Celente says in his Trends in the News;
Buying and holding bitcoin for at least five years has never resulted in financial loss for those who’ve done it. And it’s unlikely to do so over the next five years, even though states and others are arguably buying at the wrong time in the cycle, the middle of a bull run that has already seen Bitcoin rise from 2022 lows.
Another aspect of the geopolitics of cryptos can be found in the use of regulated stablecoins to boost the dollar’s global dominance. In an interview with think tank the Atlantic Council Christopher Waller, Fed Reserve Bank Governor said stablecoins;
will broaden the reach of the dollar across the globe and make it even more of a reserve currency than it is now. What I see with stablecoins is they are going to open up possibilities and other ways of doing payments on the rails.
US dollars make up more than 99% of stablecoin currency shares. It could prove to be a balance to the increasing pull of BRICS. Currently legislation is being proposed to define stablecoins as digital assets pegged to the US dollar. These it should be noted are not decentralised they are a way to prop up the dollar.
China however, cannot embrace the decentralized blockchain without fundamentally changing. That is why they did what they could to suppress Bitcoin. China can only lose in this technology sphere. They can’t copy or steal it, and build factories and conscript cheap labour.
Their digital Yuan, to give one obvious example, is anything but decentralized and autonomous. It is designed to be manipulated by and preserve the power of a small elite politburo.
China can only lose in this technology sphere. Whilst it remains banned in China swift adoption by the West can lead to a significant advantage.
