According to a recent BBC article, El Salvador has just become the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender. In her chapter on Crytocurrency: Will the Digitization of Currency Allow Malign Actors to Achieve Strategic Effects, Sara Dudley says “As developed nations move deeper into life as cashless communities, the declining acceptance and use of fiat currency marks a critical evolution of society from physical cash to digital value transfers. What if rogue and revisionist nations could unite behind a digital currency that supplanted the USD? Could they establish a secondary market system that avoids the international sanctions and anti money-laundering protocols in the international financial systems to modulate bad behavior? Venezuelan, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean pursuits of just this sort of crytocurrency alternatives give credibility to this concept. The potential next major world war might not be a traditional battlefield but between financial systems.”
Do you agree with Sara Dudley’s comments and concerns? Do you believe the comment in the BBC article that “countries like China are going in the opposite direction and attempting to restrict the adoption of cryptocurrency with increased regulations” will be successful? Consider the potential positive and negative effects of crytocurrency upon the USD, world trade, and global business operations. Please research reputable sources and provide your thoughts.
