On September 14, Bitcoin.com ambassador Sterlin Lujan spoke at the NEXT BLOCK conference in Sofia (Bulgaria). He talked about the psychology and evolution of money and how cryptocurrencies can disrupt fiat’s hegemony but also touched on how governments can try to hinder this process. In an exclusive interview for Cryptovest, Lujan elaborated on his views. Last week, we published the first part of our conversation, which focused on the internal and external risks for cryptocurrencies.
In the second part of the interview, Lujan shares his political and philosophical views on cryptocurrencies, comments on why governments are afraid of them and offers his predictions for the cryptocurrency market at the end of 2018.
Cryptocurrencies are still being discussed in terms of their value in fiat money, especially US dollars. Do you think this is an issue impeding widespread adoption and what would it take to change that?
I don’t think so. It’s just a natural thing that is part of the current development ecosystem.
Cryptocurrencies are so new, and we are so entrenched in the current fiduciary system that naturally any kind of new money or new commodity will likely be valued in an exchange ratio with fiat currency. That’s the currency everybody is used to dealing with. This isn’t an impediment to mass adoption; it’s just a stepping stone.
At first, cryptocurrencies are going to be measured and valued in terms of fiat currencies, but eventually, with mass adoption, fiat currencies will fall to the wayside, and cryptocurrencies have the potential to become a unit of account.
This is primarily an economic but also a bit of a technological problem. It depends on how you look at it. Some people may want to develop stablecoins that are naturally less volatile and act as a natural unit of account, but, in my opinion, some might simply want to achieve mass adoption with an actual cryptocurrency. The more cryptocurrencies there are in circulation, the less volatile they become and the greater their chance of becoming a unit of account. Once cryptocurrencies become a unit of account, fiat currencies start to fall to the wayside.
I strongly believe that’s the path we are on; it’s really a matter of time. I can’t bring out a crystal ball and give you a date, but I do believe we are heading in the appropriate direction.
Which existing cryptocurrency do you see as having the greatest potential to become such a unit of account?
Bitcoin Cash and possibly something like Dash; some of the cryptocurrencies that are doing really good marketing. I think something like Decred can eventually have a really good chance of becoming a unit of account.
It’s just a market matter, a question of which one is more poised to be easily mass-adopted. Bitcoin Cash is in a particularly strong position to get there. That doesn’t mean it will win – in an open market, any potential cryptocurrency can win. Any that can be used as cash in a truly peer-to-peer fashion has an opportunity to become the unit of account.
Can crypto and fiat co-exist? Or does the potential rise of cryptocurrencies spell doom for fiat currencies?
They are co-existing right now.
This is a problem of ought versus is – what will happen is different from what I want to happen. And what I want to happen is for fiat currencies just to fall to the wayside. We’ll get a little philosophical if that’s ok with you.
Because of the existence of fiat currencies, people all over the world have been enslaved by governments. Governments control how fiat currencies are printed, and they can trace people’s digital transactions and then freeze an account.
Fiat currencies have caused widespread destruction. In my mind, they are also t...
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