This is a YouTube interview (uploaded June 25, 2021) with Dan Held discussing whether Bitcoin can become the world reserve currency. Held defines "Hyper Bitcoinization" as the state where bitcoin is the global reserve and national currencies disappear, argues bitcoin solves the "trust" problem in money by acting as immutable store-of-value ("digital gold"), outlines an adoption pathway (retail → institutions → central banks), and predicts government/central-bank adoption in a multi-year timeframe. He contrasts bitcoin with gold and fiat, mentions massive fiat printing during COVID (quoted figure), and discusses an intermediate basket-of-currencies transitioning toward bitcoin.
Questions this video answers
June 25, 2021.
"$25 trillion across the world, dollar equivalent value across the world during COVID" (quoted).
Spoken figures include 12,000, 15,000, and a remark hearing "50,000 at one point."
He suggests government adoption may come "probably like four years from now."
Chapters
Hyper Bitcoinization refers to a moment when bitcoin is the world reserve currency. It's this world where bitcoin has won and it's what we don't have any national currencies anymore. It's just bitcoin. I think bitcoin has a good chance of achieving that.
Dan, how's everything going at the conference?
So far it's been a blast. 12,000 people. Is it 12,000 or 15,000?
I heard 50,000 at one point. This has been absolutely, who knows, the.
Numbers are just kind of nuts. But it's good to be feel the vibe of the bitcoin community. It's been such a long, during COVID such a long time of just that physical separation. So I think everyone's just excited to be back again. It's awesome.
Well, we do want to talk bitcoin today. So for those at home who are maybe inexperienced, don't know much about bitcoin, what is the big sales pitch that you've been hearing around the conference? And obviously you being an expert yourself, what do you tell the novices and then what are you telling professionals that are looking to get into it as well?
Yeah, so the problem that bitcoin solves, it solves the problem of trust with money. Previously with money, we'd the trust that the government wouldn't print much more of it, which would devalue it over time. And as we've seen throughout all human history, governments continually breach that promise. Bitcoin solves that problem, that problem of trust by creating a store value asset, kind of like a digital gold, if you will. That's not changeable by governments, not feasible by governments, not mutable, not censorable by governments. So it's true free money. It's money that no one can control other than you, which is really, really powerful. So in developing countries, like in developing countries, it's powerful because their transactions are censo and more western developed countries, it's powerful because we've engaged in printing $25 trillion across the world, dollar equivalent value across the world during COVID as stimulus packages. So like this current, this fiat currency won't be worth, won't hold its value through time. Bitcoin, while its price does fluctuate, it'll never change as a sound money. And that's where we can develop our trust and place our trust and storing value in it.
So I hear you talk about the bitcoin standard a lot. Like what does that evolution look like as fiat currency kind of becomes less and less in the Years ahead.
Ye. The Bitcoin standard is essentially, that's a book written by seifudine. But the Bitcoin standard, Hyper Bitcoinization refers to a moment when Bitcoin is the world reserve currency. I think Bitcoin has a good chance of achieving that, which means that Bitcoin is the store value. So you store value in it medium of exchange and unit of accounts. Those two parameters describe modern fiat money. Grocery store prices are on the local government currency and that's what you use to transact. Bitcoin in its final stages should eat into those categories too, to where it just becomes a ubiquitous money that everyone users. So this is where Bitcoin's adopted in the billions of users. So you know, I think we're all like at least like 10 years away from that. But I think it's just going to be. That's what we call like the Bitcoin standard. Hyper Bitcoinization is this world where Bitcoin has won and it's what, you know, we don't have any national currencies anymore. It's just Bitcoin.
That's awesome. Well, so does that evolution really start on the retail side of things first, or does that start at the country to country level conducting trade? What is your opinion on that?
Yeah, so it started with retail. Right. So that's how it happened. Sure. Institution institutions have now come in, which is great. So these are the big banks, hedge funds. They're starting to see Bitcoin as a goal 2.0 and them believing in Bitcoin therefore gets more retail in a Bitcoin because retail goes, oh, I trust these institutions still. Maybe I should buy Bitcoin. So that's the state of where we're at now. Government adoption I think comes at a little bit a later date, probably like four years from now.
Okay.
And central banks might start buying it and start having part of like right now central banks own gold.
Right.
You know, and so they're like, oh, we have like our fiat currency isn't backed by gold, but we still have gold reserves. Even the US still has gold reserves. And so I could see them starting to buy Bitcoin as part of their reserves. And then eventually Bitcoin becomes a larger and larger part of that to where effectively Bitcoin becomes the standard. So any fiat left has been backed by Bitcoin. Okay, return to the gold standard.
Now in terms of like the petrodollar and how countries transact, are forced really to use US dollars or some countries are using the euro to do that. Is there a, is there a scenario where there's a basket of currencies or is there going to be a takeover completely when that bitcoin standard happens, what are you envisioning for petrodollar?
I think it's going to be a basket of currencies at first and then eventually transition to Bitcoin. Only the trust in bitcoin's monetary policy and how it's constructed is unparalleled with gold. I can't audit it. I can't audit all the gold reserves. And even auditing my own gold reserve requires an enormous amount of energy in terms of like, do you have to drill into the gold bars? I can't send you gold on the Internet. Right. You know, so like gold, gold and other fiat currencies would formally be in that basket. But bitcoin has better parameters than all of them as of money. So I see in the intermediate basket getting longer term, just bitcoin.
