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this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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politics
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Crypto? Crypto provides a viable alternative to the dollar for international transactions.
Want to engage in ecconomic activities, but you’re sanctioned by the US?
Well, here’s a tradable asset that the US can’t control because it is decentralized, and it has value in that it can be used by others as a vehicle for international trade like the dollar used to be. Gold does the same thing, but its really heavy, the US controls a HUGE supply of it, and you can’t prove the gold is yours if it gets stolen and melted. Cryptos sometimes get stolen too because the exchanges are hacked, but that isn’t really possible with a cold wallet for a host of technical reasons (if anything, you have to have a key/pin to use a cold wallet just like you do with a payment card).
So, basically there’s now an international vehicle of trade that isn’t subject to the arbitrary whims of ~~a Republican~~ the US. It also cannot be duplicated—there will only ever be 20 or 21 million.
A lot of people say bitcoin has no value, which is true on some level. But, neither does the dollar (other than its backing by the US government, but that’s arbitrary) or gold (gold’s value is a combination of scarcity and the whims of the market, but the exact same can be said of crypto).
I mean, there’s a daily usage consideration like with the dollar and Visa/Mastercard/Amex. But, what happens if/when those CC suddenly allow you to pay with crypto? I mean, the US government is depreciating its dollar constantly. So, why wouldn’t they accept an alternative form of payment? I mean, what if/when everyone loses trust in the US because of ~~Trump/Republicans~~ its politics so they let/demand Americans pay their bill in Euros? Yuan? BRICS money?
Also, its worth noting there are 1:1 crypto:dollar coins that are secure like with a bank, can't be stolen from a cold wallet, and appreciate with interest like if you opened a bank account.
In fact, banks are throwing a bitch at the regulatory level because Congress's crypto bill had a loophole in it that lets there be a viable dollar-Crypto alternative to bank accounts with a higher interest rate (savings accounts have like a 0.25 APY, but the crypto incarnaton of USD automatically appreciates at the Reserve's rate).
That doesn't even get into Ethereum being able to serve as a viable alternative-network for the tokenization and exchange of real world assets (whats the difference between owning 1 physical stock certificate out of 100 for companyX and 1 "coin" version of said stock certificate out of 100?). Ethereum has the added benefit of not closing like clearing houses do.
You can't prove crypto is yours either. All you can prove is that you have, or once had, access to it. Authentication is not identity. In fact, crypto is designed to keep those two things separate.
That's far less arbitrary than the backing of some random collection of anonymous people saying "trust me, bro." Just look at the history of crypto rug-pulls, market manipulation, exchanges vanishing overnight, etc.
Because know-your-customer laws are quite effective at finding the proceeds of crime and stopping money-laundering, and (in countries without Citizens United) preventing interference in politics by anonymous actors, often hostile states.
Right, and cold wallets are super fucking secure like banking is. Like, the cold wallets have the same level of security as banks (more so depending on which one you use). Its the exchanges you're thinking of (you buy from an exchange and send to your cold wallet, and send back if you want to sell it or xfer from your cold wallet directly to the other person's wallet to pay them). Exchanges get hacked all the time, but you can sue/get recovery depending on the exhange (Robinhood is safe-ish).
Crypto is decentralized, so that's not really a thing. Unless you mean like the global crypto user population, but at that point you're basically at the same population of some countries, just more spread out. And, at that point, isn't that the same thing as governments and their money?
Must be nice living in a country that cares about its people. But, even then, there's no reason that an electric company can't set up a unique wallet it controlls for every customer to pay into so the company can know its bills are being paid by monitoring said wallet addresses.
Ha! I got a moon to sell you.