A Question of Survival: Can Bitcoin Survive a World War?
The design of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was to be decentralized, anonymous, and censorship-resistant. These qualities make it ideal as a medium of exchange and store of value in the event of any sort of major disaster or global catastrophe. But how exactly would Bitcoin survive the aftermath of something like World War III?
Can We Use Bitcoin During A World War?
It’s funny you would ask that because there have been some events in history where governments have forbidden their citizens from using certain forms of currency. But, bitcoin is different because all transactions are recorded on an open ledger called blockchain, making it impossible to censor. And unlike paper currency, no government or entity controls digital currencies like bitcoin. As a result, it can be used almost anywhere globally as long as people accept them as payment.
Some countries already recognize bitcoin as legal tender, and other countries appear willing to adopt it in the future. So yes, we believe you can use bitcoins during wartime! Just keep in mind that prices may fluctuate more due to the increasing demand for bitcoins.
Why Bitcoin Might Survive A World War
Just as cash and gold coins can remain relatively untouched by wars, Bitcoin’s distributed nature means it’s resistant to attacks and hacks. That makes it an ideal store of value for investors during economic upheavals. It also gives governments worldwide something to fear since they’ll never have total control over their monetary policy or banking systems again. In other words, one way or another, we may live in a world dominated by cryptocurrencies. Here’s why bitcoin might survive a world war
Inflation Resistant
Unlike fiat currency, bitcoin is not backed by any government or physical good. It’s purely digital. As such, the derivation of its value is solely from public perception and demand—in other words, people have to believe that bitcoin will be worth something for it to have value. That makes bitcoin incredibly inflation-resistant. If there’s one thing we know about governments during wartime, it’s that they want to control the money supply to pay for their war efforts (no more printing crazy amounts of money). This means you can rest assured that whether or not you choose to buy bitcoin now, your bitcoin will hold its value through some pretty difficult times ahead.
Fixed Supply
There is a high probability that a world war will not destroy Bitcoin. This is because the design of Bitcoin is to create new coins at a set rate, but it is diminishing over time. In fact, half of the current Bitcoin supply has been created already. By the year 2025, the rate of creation of new coins will have slowed down to almost nothing. By then, Bitcoin will have a fixed supply.
The benefits of a fixed supply of Bitcoin over other forms of money are numerous. However, while Bitcoin can fix many problems, it will probably not solve a world war. Scarce assets like oil, rare earth metals, and agricultural land often motivate human conflict. In some cases, religious or ethnic enmity can also drive it. And then there’s group collective insanity. Fortunately, there’s another way in which Bitcoin could help: it can constrain conventional wars, which can be expensive and inefficient. It could even constrain state violence and human conflict.
Potential As A Weapon Of Destabilization
Bitcoin’s potential as a weapon of destabilization in a world war is one of the many questions surrounding the cryptocurrency. While it might not seem like a significant issue, the government of the United States is concerned that cryptocurrencies could undermine economic sanctions. For example, the Iranian government was able to use bitcoin mining to circumvent trade embargoes.
Bitcoin is already a national security threat, as the use of the currency allows citizens to circumvent government authority. It also allows nefarious actors to evade detection. Moreover, its decentralized nature makes it difficult to claim that Bitcoin intentionally destabilizes the U.S. dollar. Nevertheless, the use of cryptocurrencies as a weapon of destabilization by nation-states or independent actors may have disastrous consequences for the world’s reserve currency.
They May Reduce The Incentive For Large-Scale, Conventional War
While Bitcoins are unlikely to prevent the world from fighting large-scale wars completely, they do have the potential to mitigate the costs of such conflict. It’s possible that Bitcoins can reduce state budgets for war and give everyone more for less. In other words, a smaller state budget can fund technological advances that give states and everyone more for less. But this solution is not likely to be universal.
The adoption of Bitcoins by the public makes them an increasingly important macroeconomic phenomenon. It turns theoretical debates into practical questions about how the digital currency will impact geopolitical relations. The current balance of global power results from complex arrangements of military alliances, trade flows, ethnic affinity, cultural influence, linguistic agreement, and national boundaries. These factors may all change in a world where Bitcoins are the currency of choice.
Why Does It Matter If Bitcoin Survives A World War?
Although it’s unlikely that there will ever be a wage of any kind of nuclear war, there is always a chance. Should one occur in our lifetime, whether it’s tomorrow or in 50 years, our technological infrastructure would likely crumble, and we’d lose all of what we consider normal life today? In an event like that, bitcoin would not only be protected against any physical destruction but also help ensure transactions are documented and transparent. Remember, bitcoin exists on thousands of computers around the world.
As such, if we ever survive as a civilization post-war, bitcoin would be invaluable for rebuilding commerce and trust amongst nations. Of course, it’s hard to say exactly how bitcoin would play out in a hypothetical scenario like that. But it certainly seems possible that bitcoin could become even more valuable than gold should another major conflict arise. That alone makes cryptocurrency worth paying attention to right now.