Former Canadian Prime Minister Lists Bitcoin as Doable Future Reserve Foreign money

Stephen Harper, an economist and the previous prime minister of Canada, mentioned bitcoin may doubtlessly see use as a reserve foreign money, however it isn’t going to supplant the U.S. greenback’s worldwide position.

In an interview with Cambridge Home’s Jay Martin on Sunday, Harper acknowledged that the greenback had been on a downtrend, however mentioned there have been few viable worldwide alternate options, even when wanting on the euro and the yuan.

“Except the U.S. turns into a disaster, it’s onerous to see what the choice is to the U.S. greenback because the world’s main reserve foreign money. Aside from you understand gold, bitcoin, … an entire basket of issues, proper?” mentioned Harper. “I believe you’ll see that the variety of issues that folks use as reserves will develop, however the U.S. greenback will nonetheless be the majority of it.” 

Harper harassed he’s not an professional on the subject of digital currencies, however mentioned it’s onerous to see how they function as a retailer of worth – one thing “fairly crucial” for a foreign money.

The previous Conservative prime minister defined that each foreign money has three functions: as a medium of alternate, as a unit of account and as a retailer of worth. He acknowledged a digital foreign money is definitely a medium of alternate and generally is a unit of account, however it’s tough to see how bitcoin can act as a retailer of worth.

That’s as a result of “I, as an investor, do not know what this funding represents,” he mentioned.

Harper additionally addressed the pattern for central banks to be contemplating the launch of their very own digital currencies.

“In the end, when you’ve got a digital foreign money and the aim of the central financial institution is to regulate inflation and create a secure foreign money and value stability, then digital foreign money is simply form of an evolution of {the marketplace},” he mentioned. “However whether it is a part of a sequence of what I believe are wild experiments as to the position of central banking, then that worries me so much.”