Wow.
This is an interesting perspective from the editor and publisher of the Economic Policy Journal and Target Liberty, Robert Wenzel.
Wenzel, who has warned about the dire future of bitcoin for a couple of years now, thinks it is time for the government to step in and put a stop to the peer-to-peer decentralized virtual currency.
Arguing from a realpolitik perspective, Wenzel fears that the government may begin to understand the tracking and surveillance power of digital currencies, which would lead to a state-run form of electric money imposed on the public.
He writes:
In my view, e-currencies are very trackable and the news out of Australia supports the fear I have of where digital currency trends are headed. Governments are not going to allow Bitcoin or other non-central bank e-currencies to take over as the main means of exchange.
If central banks begin to understand the powerful tool e-currencies are for control, they will create their own e-currencies that will be able to track every transaction we make. In this fashion, they would be setting up a turnkey system that under a totalitarian regime could even prevent us from buying books or other goods or services that the government doesn’t want us to have.
A central bank digital currency, in other words, is a very dangerous, very powerful, totalitarian tool.
I do not believe most in government policy positions, at this point in time, understand how powerful of a tool of control a government-controlled e-currency would be.
Thus, I believe from a realpolitik perspective of keeping us freer, I would rather see government crush Bitcoin and other current e-currencies now rather than when and if Bitcoin jumps the shark and becomes an actual means of exchange. At such time, the government would act to quash Bitcoin and other e-currencies and be more likely to introduce their own trackable e-currency, which could be used in a very totalitarian fashion.
In other words, I expect Bitcoin and other e-currencies to get crushed by government, one way or another, sometime in the future. I would rather see it happen now so that it doesn’t further educate statists on how an e-currency could work in general exchange. Let them kill it out now and hope that it kills their focus on e-currencies and the idea that they should launch their own.
This will certainly place a target on Wenzel’s back, akin to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon or former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan. The passionate bitcoin crowd will take offence to Wenzel’s suggestion. He better be careful moving forward!
FYI: be sure to check out Wenzel’s sublime video on bitcoin (SEE: Robert Wenzel talks bitcoin, explains who’s buying BTC and when they will stop).
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