One-time Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Mentions Bitcoin Alongside Gold as Alternative Reserve Currencies

By: Dickson Arinze

January 20, 2021 9:34 AM

One time Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has classed bitcoin alongside gold as assets that can act as alternative reserve currencies.

However, he still argues that despite the growing questions about the dollar’s reserve status, he does not see any real prospect of that changing anytime soon. Instead, he envisions these alternatives becoming part of a basket of reserves in which the dollar will dominate.

Speaking in an interview, the one time head of government utilizes Canada’s experiences in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to elucidate why he thinks the dollar’s reserve currency status will not be under any form of threat from Bitcoin(BTC).

According to Stephen Harper, after the financial crisis left the U.S. economy in a worse off position, Canada, on the other hand, emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed.

This better economic standing led to the increasing demand and subsequent appreciation in the value of the Canadian dollar. Yet as Harper explains, Canada, as well as the few countries that survived the crisis, could not “absorb the money that was floating.” This experience according to Harper demonstrated then that the U.S. dollar cannot easily be displaced from its position.

The one-time prime minister believes it is such shortcomings that will ensure that the U.S. dollar remains the most dominant reserve currency for some time making Bitcoin (BTC) and Gold a decent alternative.