In case you missed it, because it was clearly in the shadow of Elon Musk’s $1.5B investment in Bitcoin, on Wednesday, Bank of Canada Deputy Guv Lane unequivocally shot down Bitcoin as a future currency: Payments innovation beyond the pandemic
“Even in this increasingly digital economy, though, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin do not have a plausible claim to become the money of the future. They are deeply flawed as methods of payment—except for illicit transactions like money laundering, where anonymity trumps all other features—because they rely on costly verification methods and their purchasing power is wildly unstable. The recent spike in their prices looks less like a trend and more like a speculative mania—an atmosphere in which one high-profile tweet is enough to trigger a sudden jump in price.”
Folks, like it or not, as long as the institution responsible for the Canadian currency is not onside on the Bitcoin trade, i.e. : “deeply flawed as methods of payment”, the likelihood of it surviving the bubble that is currently being driven by the excesses of our times is highly unlikely. In fact, the illicit nature of the anonymity is going to draw other authorities into the argument as well. Like it or not, society needs to be regulated (some of you may disagree with this sentiment, or just how much regulation should be required) to prevent the bad element from taking over. By bad element, I will be safely politically agnostic and keep it to the money laundering crowd of terrorist financiers and illegal drug runners of whom, we at the heart of the financial industry, are annually updated and tested on identifying their methods.
We can always debate the legitimacy of our central bankers and the policies that they are currently pursuing and our governments and the policies that they are pursuing and what it all may mean for the future of our fiat currencies and the legacy for our children and grandchildren. But as long as they (the politicians) run the show (certainly for the foreseeable future), we will be restricted to living under their regulation. If they don’t like Bitcoin, then forget about it. In the end, as has always been the case, they will prevail. When the music stops, don’t be left standing looking for a chair that won’t be there.