Money has moved over the years from cash to credit card to digital currency beginning with the Nixon Administration removing the US Dollar from the Gold Standard in the 1970s, and allow global currencies to free float against one another, but the emergence of Bitcoin gained real traction when the housing market crashed in 2008.
In 2009 the world realized that the juggernaut US Marketplace had terrible flaws, and if we depended on the Federal Reserve, we would end up waiting in a line at an ATM that would never re-open, and to hold all of our assets in a currency with no backing other than the good faith of the government was an error in judgement – enter Bitcoin – a digital currency which was de-centralized. The price and followers exploded for Bitcoin at this juncture and is now getting traction again as we emerge from Crypto Winter.
Facebook announced it will launch Libra in 2020 and leverage the billion global users essentially addressing the same problems the global consumer saw in 2008, the need to have a barter exchange coin or tool that is de-centralized away from the government. In many countries like Venezuela, Greece and nearly everywhere in South America where inflation can destroy saving if holding the local currency can ruin economies and the good faith in these local corrupt governments. Facebook is larger than most countries in terms of revenue, and Libra will be an insulated way to transact.
It’s great to see the important uses and questions for digital currency adoption, these are the right questions to ask, believing fully in your government does not fit a changing global economy, and the consumer seeks a digital solution to spending without hoping the government will solve all problems.
It’s time to pay attention again to Bitcoin and other uses for digital currency.
