The collapse of fiat and rise of cryptocurrencies
If you were in an area where the national currency was going down the toilet, what would you do?
In the past, people in this situation opted to enter gold or a commodity like that. Today, Bitcoin is the asset of choice for people in this situation.
The situation in Turkey is rapidly declining. The Turkish Lira is down 45% on the year against the USD. This is a trend that is expected to continue. The Turkish people responded by piling into Bitcoin.
One of the reasons for this is the clear stance the Turkish government has regarding Bitcoin. In that country, it is legal to purchase, hassle free, through local banks. This is an opportunity the populous is taking advantage of.
So while the government is engaged in a back and forth with President Trump, the population of Turkey is going Bitcoin.
Venezuela also is having issues with the United States President. Under orders of sanctions, the Venezuelan government decided to turn to cryptocurrency as the answer. This drew complains by the President that the Venezuelans were simply issuing that currency to avoid sanctions.
Wouldn't you if you were them?
The Petro is their solution and it is backed by oil reserves. Recently, it was announced this would replace the Bolivar as the national currency.
South Africa, Iran, and Russia are also seeing their fiat currency obliterated. The later two, like Venezuela, are also under sanctions from the United States. This is putting enormous pressure on those national currencies. South Africa, while not in the same boat, is feeling the effects of a global trade war.
The question is how long until these two nations adopt cryptocurrency as a way around the United States actions?
We keep hearing from the mainstream media how well the global economy is doing. While this might be the case, there are a number of countries who are not experiencing this. Since fiat is backed by nothing but confidence, when it falls, the currency becomes worthless. Economies that are collapsing, for whatever reason, tend not to draw outside investment. This creates a snowball effect putting more downward pressure on the national currency.
Cryptocurrency is a nationless, borderless asset class. Bitcoin is a monetary unit that is tied to no national entity. The backing is based upon the belief in the blockchain as opposed to any one particular government. Sanctions are useless against this asset since it operates on computers all over the world.
One major section of the early adopters of Bitcoin are those who do it out of necessity. As more countries find their economies in jeopardy, hence their currencies being devalued, the more people will turn to cryptocurrency. The advantage that Bitcoin, as an example, has over gold is that the returns are far superior. Also, if one is in a situation where physical escape is needed, Bitcoin is a lot easier to transport than gold.
To read more on this subject, click here.
My uncle and I had a discussion along these lines. He insists BTC is too risky and that metals are the only safe haven against any looming cash crisis. He's a smart guy, but he's stuck in that old paradigm. He's been following crypto since the beginning of the year only to validate himself. Gold's decline hasn't swayed him either. It's astonishing, really. No amount of data or historical evidence will sway him. He just nods and then makes the same points (BTC plummeted at the start of the year, etc.) the next time the topic comes up.
His loss in the end. Cryptocurrency is going to happen, it's just a matter of when. The technology is so much better than using fiat land this will become obvious over enough time.
He'll beg me to buy his gold with my crypto...
It's down. You should offer to buy an ounce, just to see if he'll put his money where his mouth is. Lol.
Worst case, your both a little more diversified.
It is a standard situation, you are dealing with the old generation. I remember that from historical times there was a saying that the younger ones have to learn from the older people, cause they are wise!
But thanks to Internet everything changes. The paradigm is broken.
Posted using Partiko Android
That's what drives me crazy about my uncle. He made one hell of a living in Pharma development. It's not like he's that 'crazy uncle' who plays with a Hamm radio at night. The man is very smart and very well educated. But... he's got that conservative gene. Therefore, the way things have always been is as they should always be.
He'll come around, I hope.
Do you think the older generation is preferably to become a real player in the blockchain or can skip them?
Posted using Partiko Android
For one, I think blockchain technologies will in many cases be invisible. Embedded in the infrastructure of process and operations so it won't necessarily require 'activation' on our part. Still, there will be applications that require us, as consumers, to engage with this new tech and I think the older folks are like any other 'older generation'. Some will embrace while others will choose to not participate. My mother's a perfect example. She has a smartphone, but willfully remains ignorant of the features on the device. She takes pride in her lack of know-how; and that's effectively ended her career in real estate (which was a glorified hobby anyway). Meanwhile, my father is on top of all things tech. He loves it.
I think some people just have a more difficult time making the adjustments and accepting the new paradigm than others. Age has something to do with it, sure. But there's concern for those who choose to lag behind. They may be left out of the economy entirely if they're not willing to even be curious about what's on the horizon. I'm not futurist, but I do wonder what will happen in this case.
Precious metals are great... but they're not easily divisible and trying to buy something online or making any sort of payment with it would be a real headache if not impossible.
Completely agreed. Plus, they're a liability. People are often concerned with storing them at home so they're in bank deposit boxes or owned through IOUs (for lack of the correct term) and well... Cyprus set the remarkable precedent that's not 100% either.
What I do not get is how can there be all this adoption by various countries while the value of Bitcoin remains static. There has to be something going on under the radar. HODL everybody!!
The percentage is still marginal which adopt BTC to evade (hyper)infaltion. The current global financial system is feeding the BTC monster. One bite at a time.. it will need more soon. A cute monster ofcourse..
True. Think there obviously is still a generational, misguided ethical divide and a deep-rooted mistrust of fin-tech/digital, a classic digital/physical (false) dichotomy of cryptography or physical assets.
Being one of the few "Boomers" who is invested in crypto I think you are on to something. My friends my age think I'm crazy to get involved. My younger friends are all involved themselves.
Fiat won't collapse, but an economy can easily be mismanaged and that's when a flight to cryptos will make most ppl realize how important they are.
lets hope so. crypto to the mooooon!!!
as a venezuelan i must say that the information that you have about the petro is not correct, we venezuelans live in the worst dictatorship the country has ever seen, and the petro is just another way to slave venezuelans and keep stealing from our country and thous naive enough to invest in the petro, witch is definitely a scam.
yes bitcoin is the future
The problem using BitCoin instead of fiat in contingency environment is the volatility of the asset...couple that with limited access to the internet...and there are real problems with a crypto based economy. Further, getting around sanctions, which are often established through UN not US agreements...those things are enforced by military intervention. Simply using a crypto based currency doesn't work...there is a price to pay, and that price might be the receipt of tomahawk missiles, increased instability and the loss of access to ones wealth...and even when the wealth is accessible, the economy may not be equipped to receive it.
Volatility of Bitcoin is better than the exponential inflation of fiat currency. These people don't really have much of a choice, take a chance by using and hodling crypto currency? or continue to have faith is a currency that is pretty much guaranteed to be worth less tomorrow than it is today.
Ya, conflict makes things tough...what works here for us...won't work for them. One day a person is banker in a wealthy family...the next there's nothing, no house, no electricity...and they're selling gas on a side road trying to eek out survival. As bullish as I am on Bitcoin et al, it's not a good conflict currency...but like you said...there's not really any good choice. Given the challenges of trading non-fiat currency in contingency environments...maybe there's a use case where there exists a hybrid of fiat/crypto currency? IDK.
GO CRYPTO GO!💫🍀💯🙌🏿🌪
https://bitbay.net/en
Trade Bitcoin & Digital Currency
Exchange number 1 in Europe
5th currency pair of the world - PLN/BTC
Trading with bitcoin made so easy. Trust me give it a try.