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Why Cryptocurrencies Will Not Save the World
As long as credit and debt exist, crypto is no different than fiat
Even predating the 2009 advent of bitcoin, cryptocurrency evangelists espoused decentralized electronic currency as an antidote to many aspects of financial inequality. Today, the apparent virtues of cryptocurrency are more widely held and loudly proclaimed than ever. But I wonder if crypto proponents have ever carefully considered what would happen should bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency supplant fiat money.
The answer is that nothing about inequality would change.
Cryptocurrency advocates seem to dismiss the fundamental usage of money in contemporary society: as a tally of debt. Even if crypto assets replaced fiat money, nothing about the current financial structure would change unless the economic psychology of the world population shifted as well. And let’s be honest — that’s not going to happen.
Sure, cryptocurrencies might reduce transaction lag times and some fees and enable peer-to-peer transactions, but that won’t change how the financial system works much. This is because ideas such as interest and debt are already ingrained in the human psyche.
There will always be entities who hold more money than others, be it fiat cash or cryptocurrency. And…
