This week marks 50 years since President Richard Nixon announced the US would abandon the Gold Standard. Instead of redeeming the dollar in gold, the government allowed its value to float freely on the market.
So began a sharp devaluation of the world’s reserve currency of choice under the US-led Bretton Woods system. Priced in gold, the dollar has lost more than 90 per cent of its value since the Nixon shock. Meanwhile the British pound has lost over 40 per cent of its dollar value
The pandemic has only accelerated this process, illustrating just how soft paper currencies really are. Governments have printed money in unprecedented quantities, with a fifth of all dollars to ever come into existence created by the Federal Reserve in 2020 alone.
Under the regime of easy money, those with their hands on the printer assume extensive power, while the savings of all those who do not are constantly devalued. Today, $100,000 has the same purchasing power that $14,945 had in 1971.
Against this uncertainty in traditional currency, the rise of digital currencies is unsurprising. Crypto adoption has risen by 881 per cent this year, up 2300 per cent since Q3 2019, according to new data from Chainanalysis. In January 2021 the number of crypto owners surged above 100 million for the first time. A mere six months later the figure more than doubled, reaching 221 million by the end of June.
Like gold, there is a limited supply of Bitcoin, and it is difficult to “mine”. New bitcoins are created as a reward for miners who solve algorithms in order to add new blocks, containing transaction data, to bitcoin’s blockchain. The flow of new bitcoins will stop, however, when bitcoin reaches its max supply of 21 million units.The rules governing this system are sacrosanct. They cannot be changed without the consensus of the entire bitcoin network, making an increase in supply highly unlikely.
Crucially, this means that like gold, bitcoin has what is known as a high stock to flow ratio – in other words, the rate at which new bitcoins are created is low relative to its existing supply. This means Bitcoin cannot be devalued by people creating more and more coins when its price rises – a trap which has plagued lesser metals such as silver.
This is very clear for me to about what will happen with time in our future. What has happened to fiat from the above explanation is true and I am not seeing any currency from any country that has not lost value or a little depreciation because of the economic development and changes in the world. This is interesting enough that bitcoin has more advantage
Today, $100,000 has the same purchasing power that $14,945 had in 1971.
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