Could Bitcoin run the world in the future, instead of the current fiat currency system? SWIFT thought enough of this question to study the idea in-depth.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Earth gets more solar power from the sun in a single hour than humanity uses in an entire year. Yet, solar power only provided 0.39% of the energy used in the US last year. Why? Because the world runs on hazardous, inefficient, primitive oil. Why? Because the countries, governments, and businesses of the world want it that way to control the use of money, energy and systems on the planet. Solar energy is a far better, safer, and a much more efficient energy system, but the world will never use it at scale. This is not an accident. This is by design.

Why do I bring that subject up on a Bitcoin news site? The question of how the world uses energy is a microcosm of the way the world turns in many different industries and globalized systems. The only other global system which is as important as how the world gains and uses energy is the monetary system. Do you see any similarities in the world’s current monetary policy? I would argue that it is the other side of the same coin. Virtually identical in design, and control.

The world uses a fiat currency system, managed by central bankers in virtually every nation in the world. The Federal Reserve in the United States, and the Bank of England pulling the main strings, deciding just how fast the world goes round. No fiat, or paper money on the planet has any actual, intrinsic value.

There haven’t been gold standards in over 40 years. Central banks alone control the amount of money in circulation, and can print, or debase, any currency if they so choose. They are in total control of the concept of money. Your job, as a ward of the state, is to accept and buy into this controlled banker-led, government-approved system. Is that the best system the world can come up with? Of course not, but it is what we have, and again, this by design. This is no accident.

Bitcoin is a look into how the future of money could, and, some say, should work. Decentralized, anti-inflationary, global, not national, with no corruptable, controllable “master of ceremonies,” if you will, manipulating the system to the advantage of unknown parties behind the curtain. Could Bitcoin run the world in the future, instead of the current fiat currency system? It is not designed to do so, but one of the world’s largest establishment monetary banking systems, SWIFT, thought enough of this question to study the idea in-depth, through their SWIFT Institute.

Somebody is hearing footsteps

The SWIFT Institute is labeled as a group which “fosters independent research to extend the understanding of current practices and future needs across the financial industry.” Yet, it is managed and paid for by SWIFT, so is it really “independent research?” With that clarification of the true narrative out of the way, they have chosen to create a 33-page report called “VIRTUAL CURRENCIES: MEDIA OF EXCHANGE OR SPECULATIVE ASSET?.”

This official SWIFT research paper analyzes Bitcoin and its essential relevance throughout the global economic system, both now and in the future. So what did they find out? KiHoon Hong, who helped create the report for SWIFT, provides a succinct synopsis of their findings.

KiHoon Hong, Hongik University College of Business, says:

"Contrary to conventional wisdom, our research shows that fiat currencies crowd out Bitcoin, not the reverse and that the design and size of the Bitcoin market deprive the currency of its intended use as a medium of exchange. What is also evident is that Bitcoin poses minimal risk to financial or monetary stability. Despite this, if the acceptance of Bitcoin or other virtual currencies increases significantly on a global scale, it could have significant consequences on the relevance of monetary policy, as its decentralized and independent nature makes regulatory oversight difficult.”

The link to the full report is above if you want to review it in its entirety, but the actual report is of little importance to me. Asking an icon of the economic establishment if the new online currency will one day remove them from power is like asking Hillary Clinton if she should use her own servers for emails. Something as powerful and incumbent as the SWIFT network is only going to see what they want to see, and will look to control everything else.

What is the point?

I bring this report to your attention not because of the value or content of the report itself, but the fact that SWIFT bothered to make a report on whether Bitcoin’s digital currency will one day make them obsolete. Think about that. Bitcoin, with a global economic value of less than $10 billion USD, has done enough to catch the attention of the world’s largest fiat currency management system for central bankers, worldwide.

Bitcoin has moved the market enough, gained enough traction, and proven impenetrable enough to make SWIFT say “Should we be worried about Bitcoin?” then get a group together to break it apart and give their masters the answers they want to hear. You could make the argument that this might be one of Bitcoin’s greatest achievements, in this amount of respect being shown to Bitcoin after only 7½ years of existence.

My opinion is that Bitcoin is not here to replace the current economic system itself. It is here to prove that it is obsolete and that it can, and should be replaced, and that there is a better way forward for the world’s economic systems. Nations are developing digital currencies and national Blockchains as we speak, so there will be economic systems built to model Bitcoin’s success, and we may be using them much sooner than you think.

Bitcoin is not the destructive instrument of the coming global economic reconstruction, as we all move from fiat-based to full-on digital systems. It is just the proof that it would work in a superior fashion, outside of criminals jumping on the bandwagon first, before the mainstream. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. SWIFT would seem inclined to agree with me.

From using its innovative, underlying Blockchain technology, to the actual currency system itself, Bitcoin, in its small way, has won the respect of the global economic elite. Bitcoin has taken every attack, both internal and external, and Bitcoin continues to rise, both in economic value, and in a level of respect from the establishment’s leading economic forces.

Which reminds me of a song. In her recent single, “Rise,” Katy Perry has lyrics which would describe Bitcoin’s global mission statement very well indeed: