Hindsight is always wiser. If you look at how Turkey has been buying up gold over the past ten years, then it was foreseeable that the BRICS would take off, as they have now announced. Russia has increased its gold purchases once again massively and is obviously already preparing for the imminent introduction of a gold backed currency system in the new economic mega block BRICS.
Prediction: If BRICS monetise/weaponise gold, America will do the same with Bitcoin.
reply
47 sats \ 2 replies \ @jddska 8 Sep
China lost the metal race by sticking to silver instead of gold in the past, similar monetary war now...
reply
That was then - however since The Opium Wars China has observed and ultimately adopted a mercantile strategy responding to The Wests imperialism. . . today is there a single nation on earth that can afford not to trade with China without suffering considerable economic damage? No. China has won the trade war and is naturally seeking to gain monetary hegemony as history shows monetary hegemony is generally assumed by the dominant trading nation. USD vs DCEP vs BTC
reply
what's DCEP?
reply
How precisely does America monetise/weaponise Bitcoin? It can't.
reply
47 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bishop 8 Sep
Step up Trump's strategic reserve plan from not just selling seized Bitcoin but also provide the Federal Reserve with a broadened mandate to acquire and hold Bitcoin akin to gold reserves.
Tax breaks for American data farms which meet a % threshold of power allocated for Bitcoin mining.
Tax breaks for Americans who hold Bitcoin e.g. no capital gains tax up to $100,000.
Favourable relations with other countries which remain pro-dollar and pro-Bitcoin.
Change incentives for finance institutions so buying spot bitcoin and selling on the futures market to pocket the difference becomes less attractive.
reply
Sounds good to me. But I do not trust politicians. Better we grow without them
reply
Man, imagine this showdown
reply
At the end - all roads lead to Bitcoin :-) They will find this soon enough.
reply
‘ Bitcoin and stablecoins are emerging as some of the most potent geopolitical tools the US and its allies have against Eastern powers. It’s high time key decision-makers recognize that allowing Bitcoin to flourish—potentially even surpassing gold in monetary significance—would disproportionately benefit the US. After all, American citizens and companies hold a substantial portion of the global Bitcoin supply, and its adoption would fuel growth in US capital markets. ‘
reply
Is the U.S. Gold Reserve Change not even on this list??
reply
Fort Knox is EMPTY!
reply
0 sats \ 1 reply \ @flat24 8 Sep
I think the BRICS will try to give credibility to their currency based on their gold holdings, and the US, in order not to be left behind and made a fool of by not having enough gold in the federal reserve to try to save the credibility and confidence of the dollar, will make the big turn by backing their shit currency with the Bitcoin holdings they have confiscated over the years, which makes them number 1 in terms of Bitcoin holders.
reply
Currency hegemony depends primarily on it providing access to commodity markets and manufactured goods. The USD SWIFT Hegemony has held this position but increasingly BRICS and in particular China hold a significant ability to provision access to manufactured goods and to buy the commodities that feed Chinas factories. Iran and Russia are only viable economies (able to wage war on Israel and Ukraine) because China buys their oil and gas and provides them with nearly all the manufactured goods required to operate a modern economy. China has ignored US sanctions on trade with Iran for well over a decade because China can. The US cannot declare war on China without most of US largest corporates collapsing due to the Trading with the Enemy Act.
reply
China built its CBDC (DCEP) to enable both internal use and use for international trade payments. China has won the trade war- there is no significant nation/economy anywhere that does not need to trade with China or suffer considerable economic loss. China fully intends to build the international monetary protocol to replace SWIFT- China already has done so with DCEP its already operational CBDC. China has been working on prototype digital trade payments protocol development with Hong Kong and Thailand for several years. Already Iran, N.Korea and Russia are dependent upon China for international trade payments. Among the first to adopt Chinas new CBDC monetary protocol will the the BRICS while traditional allies to the US will be the last to abandon the USD. The transition has already begun...with an increasingly bipolar world emerging as the US and China diverge. Bitcoin offers a third option- a neutral monetary protocol free of nation state strategic imperatives and fiat debasement.
reply
There are two major problems with a gold-backed BRICST+ currency:
  1. Sharing a currency takes trust. Countries like Russia, China, and India absolutely LOATHE one another and take every chance they can to 1-up each other or screw each other over on the bargaining table. The trust has never been there and I don't see how it can appear.
  2. For such a currency to be an alternative to the dollar there simply isn't enough gold in existence, not at any sane price. Think about how many people would need to use it... More than half the world live in those countries! Maybe if the price of gold rises to $1m per ounce, there'd be enough to back that many bricbux but as soon as the price starts rising there would be supply shocks and other countries piling in, etc, and it'll simply be too hard for them to get the backing they need for all those backed notes.
So if it ever does happen, I'm guessing they'll just claim they have gold they do not and it'll be just another fiat currency, backed in name only.
reply
Backing requires trust, trust is low and getting lower = this BRICS currency is DOA
reply
The utility of any currency is founded upon what markets it gives you access to. The USD has dominated on that score by being the currency at the base of the SWIFT bank payments protocol. Central banks have been forced to carry USD or lose access to global trade payments. This created almost limitless seigniorage for the USA- but that 'free money' SWIFT hegemony is about to end. Today China produces more manufactured goods at lower prices than any competitor. China also buys the commodities required for its giant manufacturing base and so dominates most commodity markets. Today there is no nation on earth that can afford to not trade with China without significant loss of economic advantage - this gives China the strategic advantage in developing and implementing its new CBDC as a new global trade currency. Chinas already functional CBDC DCEP is prime of its tertiary level global resource hegemony Belt and Road infrastructure.
reply