Vitalik Buterin Does Not Believe Crypto Could Replace Traditional Currencies

Ethereum’s Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin thinks digital assets do not have a chance to steal the supremacy of traditional currencies.

Crypto Will Not ‘Take Over the World’

The global economy has not been in its best shape in the past several months. Keeping in mind the constantly growing prices of everyday supplies and services and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the future picture looks even grimmer.

These negative trends caused many experts to assume that national currencies like the dollar, the euro, and others could lose some of their purchasing power. At the same time, individuals might shift their focus towards alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies, to preserve their wealth.

According to the Russian-born programmer and one of Ethereum’s Founders – Vitalik Buterin – such a scenario where bitcoin and the altcoins become more dominant than traditional currencies is unlikely:

“I do not expect cryptocurrencies to take over the world. It’s about cryptos and digital and governments.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Buterin praised fiat money for having done a “reasonably good job of being stable” in the last few decades. He opined that monetary policy is a complicated matter, hinting that one should not blast traditional currencies without first understanding how they work.

What if Bitcoin Manages to Replace Fiat?

Last summer, the former Minister of Finance of Greece – Yanis Varoufakis – argued that BTC replacing national currencies could be a “catastrophic” move. In his view, the main reason why this should not happen is because of the cryptocurrency’s limited supply:

“We would all be now in very dire straights. What will happen when we have a pandemic and you need to increase the money supply? You cannot increase the supply of bitcoin because it is of fixed supply.”

On the other hand, numerous experts believe BTC’s maximum supply of 21 million coins ever to exist is not a drawback. The dollar, the euro, and other fiat currencies have been devaluating in the past several months due to the infinite printing from central banks.

Not long ago, the investment manager Van Eck – a company known for its bullish stance on BTC – forecasted a highly optimistic future for its price if it manages to replace traditional currencies as the global reserve asset. The firm claimed bitcoin could start trading between $1,300,000 and $4,800,000, while gold could hit $31,000 per ounce.

Featured Image Courtesy of Arover