Jack Dorsey Thinks Bitcoin Will Replace USD — It’s a Strong Possibility, but the Road Is Still Long | by Sylvain Saurel | Jan, 2022
https://ift.tt/3t6mk0e
The world will need a neutral, apolitical reserve currency sooner or later.
At the end of November 2021, Jack Dorsey announced on Twitter that he was leaving his position as CEO of the company he founded. Some people wondered what were the reasons that pushed Jack Dorsey to leave his position as CEO. In the days since he departed from Twitter, we’ve gained some insight into the reasons behind Jack Dorsey’s decision.
A long-time Bitcoiner, Jack Dorsey has decided to move on to the next level as 2021 comes to a close. The electronic payment company Square, which he co-founded and serves as CEO, was renamed Block in the process. Square’s crypto division, meanwhile, has been renamed Spiral.
These changes had been in the works for many months, but Jack Dorsey heard the right timing to announce them. His departure from Twitter was the right time for him.
If Square is renamed to Block, the goal of Jack Dorsey’s company will always remain the same:
“Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”
Block is going to be an umbrella brand covering various types of the group’s businesses: Tidal, TBD54566975 (the non-name for its planned decentralized exchange for Bitcoin), Cash App, Square, and Spiral.
The corporate name Block chosen by Jack Dorsey owes nothing to chance:
“Block has many associated meanings for the company — building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome.”
For Jack Dorsey, all his efforts will now be directed towards Bitcoin. For those who still doubt it, just look at the updated description on his Twitter profile: #Bitcoin. So you can expect Block to offer more and more services and products built on top of the Bitcoin Blockchain to accelerate the adoption of the digital currency invented by Satoshi Nakamoto by facilitating the user experience at all levels.
Now that he has left his position as CEO at Twitter, Jack Dorsey is freer to communicate as he sees fit on Twitter. This is exactly what he has been doing since the beginning of December 2021 by being much more active than in the past. On December 21, 2021, the rapper Cardi B, who has more than 20 million followers on Twitter, asked a simple question:
“Do you think crypto is going to replace the dollar?”
Jack Dorsey gave an unequivocal answer:
“Yes, Bitcoin will”
You can imagine that a message of this type posted by Jack Dorsey was going to make some noise. And this is indeed what has been happening since then, with articles multiplying in the specialized and general media.
I’m writing an article on the subject myself. However, I will try to make you think about the subject by bringing you a different vision than what you can find elsewhere. At least, I hope so.
So Jack Dorsey thinks that Bitcoin will replace the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The first thing that inspires me is that he is not alone. I’ve written about this in the past: “Can Bitcoin Be the Successor to the U.S. Dollar As the World’s Reserve Currency?”.And I’m not a visionary, since other Bitcoiners had also written about this scenario.
It starts from a simple fact: the world’s reserve currencies hold their status for an average of 100 years. The US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for 101 years now:
It, therefore, seems logical that the domination of the US dollar will come to an end sooner or later.
The hegemony of the U.S. dollar is becoming more and more troublesome around the world. China realizes that it cannot become the world’s leading power as long as the US dollar is at the center of the monetary and financial system. Russia wants to better protect itself from US economic sanctions by moving away from the US dollar to gold while increasing its trade with China in yuan.
More and more countries would like to put an end to the exorbitant privilege represented by the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
America will do everything to keep its currency at the center of the game, even if it means waging wars if necessary. This has been done many times in the past. However, the question will come sooner or later. Behind the US dollar, no one sees a credible alternative among the fiat currencies. The euro has never succeeded in supplanting the US dollar so far. And behind the euro, there is a complete vacuum.
China has launched its e-CNY initiative, which aims to eliminate cash from its territory in the long run, while trying to benefit from the first-mover advantage in the field of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). The goal is to impose the e-CNY along its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to weaken the domination of the American dollar over the world.
Nevertheless, many countries will refuse to leave one master and simply go to another.
That’s where Bitcoin comes in. Bitcoin is a leaderless, neutral, and apolitical currency. On top of that, Bitcoin is hard money. In a future world where everything will be digital, Bitcoin has only advantages for replacing the U.S. dollar. Not for America, which would lose its hegemony over the current system, but for other countries, which would see it as a way to restore greater equity in the global monetary and financial system.
The adoption of Bitcoin as the world’s reserve currency in the more or less distant future is therefore a possible scenario. The road will be long of course, but it is possible. What Jack Dorsey says makes sense.
While the road will be long, I think that before it gets there, Bitcoin will first have to continue its mass adoption by the general public to become a true alternative system allowing everyone to choose. Choose between the fiat system and the Bitcoin system. Until bitcoin reaches this stage, it is illusory to think that Bitcoin can dethrone the US dollar.
However, no one can rule out this scenario for the future. It is a possible scenario, but one of many. Jack Dorsey is right to mention it, but we should not get carried away. The road ahead will be long, and the Bitcoin revolution must continue to advance block by block.
This is what it has been doing since January 3, 2009, and will continue to do in the future.
Cryptocurrency