Alan is the chief legal officer of PrimeBlock, a sustainable bitcoin mining operator, infrastructure solution provider and member of the bitcoin mining committee with branches all over North America.

“We” will see more countries adopt cryptocurrency as legal tender. We will also see the central government come out and put its currency on the blockchain. China has stated that it will do so, which will accelerate the real competition of private cryptocurrencies from a payment perspective.

From the perspective of value storage or inflation protection, there is no competition for central bank digital currencies because it is still the same legal tender and is subject to the same monetary policy manipulation of the central bank. It is of course a completely digital and transparent thing. It has both a good side and some very scary things. Hopefully, at least in the United States, the dialogue around CBDC will take place while maintaining our social values, including our own privacy and control rights.

How China and the United States will operate will be different, so dialogue needs to consciously ask the right questions. There is a way for technology to truly ignore the fundamental, social, political, philosophical, and legal impact it may have on society. This is a very powerful tool — I did not underestimate or exaggerate it. The government now supervises important intermediaries such as banks and other entities, and exercises extensive regulatory control over the payment, banking, and currency systems. This will directly affect us at the micro level. “