This is a transcribed portion of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast” hosted by P and Q. In this episode, they are joined by Julian Liniger to talk about the basics of Bitcoin and why bitcoin is gaining mass adoption in Europe, even in a bear market.
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Julian Liniger: With what’s happening in Russia, China and so on, there are initiatives to try to weaken the US dollar as a reserve currency. Do you feel that people in the US fear that this could happen in the near future, that the US dollar will lose its status as the dominant reserve currency? What role does Bitcoin play in this scenario (if it is a scenario)?
Q: Absolutely. I think the answer needs to be broken down into different groups of people. For the sake of simplicity, I would say there are three, knowing full well that there are about 500 of them. I would say the first group is the bitcoiners, who buy into this story a lot, who see the writing on the wall and see how they are. Actions taken by the US government, and actions taken by foreign governments, are on a direct path to finally no longer having the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
I think there is an opinion, and I will speak for myself, that more countries should be allowed to price oil in their own currency. It does not need to be officially announced. It doesn’t need a declaration from OPEC or the EU or anywhere else saying, “Hey, the dollar is not just a global reserve currency.” In my opinion, whatever the global benchmark for oil prices is, it will be the global reserve currency in the medium term.
There is the secondary issue of the impending collapse of the European bond market. We have seen this happen mostly in developing countries. We see the collapse of the Japanese yen. Now there’s another segment of people who think that in the shorter term the dollar’s strength will continue to grow, but with that growth it’s inevitable that there will be additional pressure, and ultimately I always come back to: Why should we believe? Why should the people who make the decisions to put us in this situation be the ones who can get us out of the position they put us in? So I would explain these two within the Bitcoin community.
And then, I think the vast majority of people in America don’t understand or have any real understanding of what it means to have a global reserve currency as our national currency and as a currency that our country and our government can print. until the end? For the vast majority of these people, they could be told all these things, but they would rather just say it, but it doesn’t matter. “The US dollar has been around all my life and it will continue.” I think there are a lot of denials. I have close friends with whom I would have these conversations, and their response would be, “Yes, but the government will figure it out. As if the US dollar will not depreciate.” I think people from that class will have a lot of pain. I think most of them will be shocked when the inevitable happens.
And then I think the last group of people, or the decision makers, are the people in government, who maybe see some, but not all of what the bitcoin class sees as the inevitability of the end of the dollar. They think that if they do one or two things right from now on, everything will be back to normal and everything will be fine. And the US dollar and the US will remain in power.
I truly believe that it is a combination of both of these ideas that fuels our politicians in this country. Either right or wrong (I believe they are wrong). The best example I’ve seen in a while is Jerome Powell saying in 2021, “Inflation will be temporary.” Don’t worry about it. Not a problem.” Only to then swear in a congressional hearing in April or May, “Yes, we were wrong. We didn’t know as much as we thought we did. And that’s why we find ourselves here.”
I have no reason to believe, from that moment until now, he has learned so much that his decisions right the ship. But I think I’m in the minority.