According to Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal, the Chinese government, which abhors the US dollar’s reserve currency status, could potentially use bitcoin as a financial weapon against the US. thinks the country in Asia may have longed for bitcoin because it weakens the influence of the dollar.
Reserve currencies
Speaking at the recent Richard Nixon Foundation seminarThiel also suggested that China prefer two reserve currencies that counter the dollar. He says the Asian country is already using the euro currency as a weapon against the dollar, although he claims that “the past decade has not worked out quite so well.”
According to Thiel, a selection of bitcoin maximist, bitcoin has now become the second reserve currency that China uses to fight the influence of the dollar. Consequently, Thiel thinks that the US government should start asking difficult questions about ‘how it works’.
China’s digital currency leadership
Meanwhile, the Paypal co-founder also shared his thoughts on China’s apparent lead in the race to expand central bank-issued digital currencies and whether it would affect the United States. Thiel rejected China’s digital renminbi project:
Some internal stalcoin in China … it’s not a real crypto-currency, it’s just a kind of totalitarian measuring device.
Meanwhile, another speaker at the same seminar of the Richard Nixon Foundation, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed with Thiel’s assessment of the digital yuan. In his speech, the former secretary also expressed his thoughts on why the US is behind China. He said:
My guess is that we will not be the leader in this forefront, where an authoritarian regime like China sees virtually everything upside down if it has the ability to issue currencies or take away currency.
Meanwhile, Pompeo predicts that many other countries will similarly create their own digital currencies to circumvent or evade U.S. sanctions or fines.
Although Pompeo has confirmed that the US is working on its own digital currency project, it still admits that its country will be slower to execute it.
Do you agree with Thiel’s comments that BTC is being used as a financial weapon against the US? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
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