Bitcoin can support the U.S. national security objectives identified by the Biden administration while countering strategic adversaries that come to challenge the dollar-based global monetary system, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) said in its latest research report.
“Bitcoin is here to stay. It’s time national security decision-makers understood the implications,” per the report.
The institute argues that Bitcoin could help the U.S. navigate the possible changes to the world monetary order that experts ponder might emerge from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Credit Suisse said in a Monday report that the U.S. dollar might suffer from the war as commodities (outside money) start to trump liabilities (inside money) as the preferred reserve assets of central banks in the East.
“When this crisis (and war) is over, the U.S. dollar should be much weaker and, on the flipside, the renminbi much stronger, backed by a basket of commodities,” Credit Suisse’s global head of short-term interest rate strategy, Zoltan Pozsar, wrote. “After this war is over, ‘money’ will never be the same again…and Bitcoin (if it still exists then) will probably benefit from all this.”
BPI makes the case for U.S. officials to reassess the durability of the current U.S. dollar-based monetary system and identify ways it could respond to a possible challenge to its currency’s hegemony. The institute argues that Bitcoin represents a strategic national security opportunity for the U.S. to drive economic strength, counter strategic adversaries, and promote American values.
“The U.S. is exceptionally well-poised to take unique advantage of the opportunity presented by the emergence of Bitcoin and use it to help promote a more abundant and resilient future,” the report said.
BPI states that Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work mining may incentivize renewable energy generation and improve energy system resilience, while Bitcoin’s digital and borderless nature could counter China’s efforts to internationalize its digital yuan. Moreover, Bitcoin enables citizens of authoritarian states to finance opposition to their governments and move capital into Western markets.
“A world where Bitcoin fails is a world where U.S. retrenchment and decline is more likely. A world where Bitcoin succeeds is a world where our role in the global system, while changed, may long endure,” the report said.
The research paper comes on the heels of multiple reports that Biden is set to sign an executive order this week outlining the U.S. government’s plans for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as it relates to national security impacts and regulation of the burgeoning market.
